LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, } 



% 



hap. 



A 8/ 

wra^pl 1 



ie 



J Ws 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, t 



/ 



~\ 



VISIONS 

FROM 

MODERN MOUNTS, 

NAMELY : 

VINELAND, MANHEIM, ROUND LAKE, HAMILTON, 
OAKINGTON, CANTON, 

WITH OTHER SELECTIONS. 
By Rev. B.'POMEROY, 

OF TROY CONFERENCE, 

AUTHOR OF i( SHOCKS FROM THE BATTERY," WITH SMALLER WORKS. 




PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 



ALBANY : 

VAN BENTHUYSEN PRINTING HOUSE. 

1871. 



-&***% 

■$&*? 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy-one. 

Br B. POMEROY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Northern District of New York. 



Sold by Agent*. Price $1.00. Sent by mail with postage paid on 
eipt of price* 
Address the Author, on Agency or for Books, at Waterford, N. Y. 



P» H E F ^ C E . 



This book is more an after-thought, than the result of premedita- 
tion. 

Finding the reports in the periodicals so imperfect (from the diffi- 
culty of reporting some speakers), and in some instances to the dis- 
advantage of truth,, to say nothing of the speaker, it occurred to the 
author for the first, that these Talks and Testimonies might be corrected 
and put in pamphlet form, perhaps to the benefit of many souls; and 
as many were calling for a new book of some kind, and even offering 
to pay for it in advance in some cases, the thought was cherished. 
That thought has finally grown to the present book, which includes 
reports of Sermons, Talks and Testimonies, delivered at six meetings 
for the promotion of Christian Holiness, with other selections; also, 
the reprint of a pamphlet which had been exhausted. 

The greater part of the Sermons were extemporary; that is, they 
were neither committed nor written. The Talks and Testimonies were 
called forth by the excitement and inspiration of the occasion, and 
gathered up after their utterance; some from professional reporters, 
some from personal friends, some from memory. A part of which 
have been published in the following periodicals, viz. : Living Epistle, 
Cincinnati Gazette, Earnest Christian, Northern Independent, Meth- 
odist Home Journal, Zion's Herald, Troy Times, also the local papers 
where the meetings were held. By the aid of these papers many 
thoughts have been saved. 

In the present corrected reports the reader will find less abruptness, 
and more elaboration of the thoughts than appeared in the original 
utterances. 

The author has endeavored to fill up some of the chasms and round 
off the sharp corners somewhat, with the view of making the book 
more agreeable to the dispassionate reader, who is supposed to 
be unexcited. While to be precise and formal when speaking, amid 
the throbbing hearts around him on these occasions, even were it pos- 
sible, would savor of infidelity in the estimate of some at least. 

The title, " Visions from Modern Mounts." is not to be understood 
in the sense that new revelations have been received over and above 
the teachings of the Bible, nor that the author has been more favored 
than many modem Christians under special manifestations of the 
Spirit. Probably St. Paul occupied a higher out -look, and took in 



4 PREFACE. 

rarer visions of New Testament Glory, than any saint who has lived 
since, especially if we are to judge by the effects of these views and 
manifestations on himself, for he was so overwhelmed with the heav- 
enly revelations, as to be in doubt at times where he was — whether 
in the body or out of the body. The author of this book does not 
profess to have had any such visions in degree, as St. Paul had, for in 
his times of highest excitement he has not lost his whereabouts, 
though at times it has seemed doubtful where his soul would go, or 
on which world he would finally light. 

He is free to confess to very great excitement. 

This title, " Visions, " etc., will naturally notify the reader what to 
expect, or rather, what not to expect — a prosy, theorizing book. If 
these views, visions and mighty impulses can be so tamed down, and 
sobered down, as to be translated into words, it is all that ought to be 
expected, to say nothing of the perfection of theory or of composition. 

To those not present, it will be in place to say, that these meetings 
were quite free from human fixings. Songs, prayers and sermons 
were generally simplified down to great soul talk — to the native un^ 
translated language of the heart. So, many of the thoughts contained * 
in this book, they were born under the rushing mighty wind dispen- 
sation of the Spirit, where the action of a cool, criticising mind 
would seem irreverent. Not to be carried up to the high- water mark 
of these incoming tides is a bad sign. 

"When a vessel fails to rise and fall — tip and rock with the swells of 
the sea, the sailors say she is aground. Now the reader may as well 
know it first as last, that there was some rocking and high mounting 
up, when the great swells came in from the other shore. And it was 
at such times as these — times when heavenly influence, like waves of 
the sea, lifted us up above the fogs of time into the clean, clear sun- 
light of the spiritual world, that views and visions were had. 

The author has no apologies to make for having been excited; nor 
for trying in this feeble way to represent these excitements — he be- 
lieves in religious excitement more than any other; of course he refers 
to the real and not to the spurious. 

When Heaven comes down our souls to greet, and Glory fills ail the 
place where we are assembled, not to expect the tongues of fire, is 
simply to mistake God and Christians both. 

May the Spirit endorse the truth of this book to the good of ail 
who may read it, is the earnest prayer of the AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



Vineland Sermon: Page. 

Divine Ability in Saving the Lost— Eph. 3 : 20, 21 7 

Manheim Sermon: 

Throne of Grace— Heb. 4 : 16 31 

Talks and Testimonies : 

Millennium begnn 47 

The Sermon of Power 47 

Fraternity of the Stand 48 

Faithful Ministers Can't be Starved Yet 48 

A Pilgrim Going Up 48 

Human Little and Divine Great 49 

Beyond the Fathers 51 

Different Fashions of Living 54 

Round Lake Sermon : 

Redeemed Peculiar People — Titus 2:15 56 

Talks and Testimonies : 

Christian Power 80 

Out Gushings of a Full Heart 85 

Oneness of Believers 87 

On the Mountain Top 89 

Millennium in Sight 90 

Diversities of Operations 91 

Hamilton Srrmon : 

The Glorified Sufferers— Rev. 7 : 15 97 

Talks and Testimonies : 

From Sackcloth to Glory 120 

Old Routines Perplexed 122 

$o New Theory 123 

A Word about Hamilton 126 



O CONTENTS. 

O a kington : Page. 

Talks and Testimonies : 

What is Egypt to Canaan 128 

Clinging to the Cross 129 

How Christianity becomes Natural to Man 130 

A Talk on Consecration 138 

Canton Sermon : 

Purity the Condition of Seeing God— Matt. 5:8 144 

Talks and Testimonies : 

The High Calling of Methodism 157 

Other Selections : 

Part First: 

Why Christians are detained on Earth — St. John, 17 : 15. . . . 159 

Part Second : 

Why Christians are detained on Earth — St. John. 17 : 15 175 

Moral Necessities God's Ultimate Argument With Man — 1 

Pet. 1:16 187 

Soul-Hunger Satisfied— Mat. 5:8 204 

Letter to a Disheartened Minister 218 

Man's Quarrel 221 

Measure of Moral Power 223 

Church Amusements 227 

Reply to Inquirer 229 

Over Anxious for the Cause 235 

New Ideas not Wanted 236 

Consecration — its Relations to Saving Faith 242 

A Word to the Reader 252 

The Conflict of Faith a Means of its Strength— Matt. 15 : 23. 254 

The Doubt of a Lady 263 

Hypocrisv don't Pay 264 

God's Echo 264 

Waiting Faith Triumphant— Matt. 15 : 23 265 

Chariots not always Needed 281 

The Love Feast .". 284 

Running off the Track 287 

Selfishness 2F5 

Letter to a Young Lady 296 

Three Conditions of Death Avoided 298 



VI2JELAID. 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST. 

_ two prominent Ministers of ray Con- 
ference if thev were not aroiu^ to the meeting to 
holden at Vlneland, without receiving any encour- 

-:ment. I replied. I am going to that meeting to 

- Amen to the religion of Jesus Christ, in opposi- 
tion to this worldly human affair which is coming 
into the Church like a flood. 

Perhaps it ought to be called honor enough to be 
in such an unearthly place as this, with the privilege 
of saying a to the Methodism and the religion 

I joined forty-six years ago. without preaching at alL 
&t Kfi :he responsibility is, and tremulous as I 
had been for a few past hours. I said to myself, if 
* a cannot preach here, you had better never try 
■gain. 

And ye: it seems next to impossible to do so. I 
am too much excited to preach — feel strange — hardly 
know what to do with myself. 

ei sa f so many saints on their knees at once, 
This whole thing has taken me on surprise. If my 
experience is not new. it is so much more than usual 
U to make me feel strange. 



8 VINELAND. 

The Ministers of my Conference are a clever set of 
men. They allow me to do about as I please, and 
bear it well, and I must be free here. Am not am- 
bitious to preach a systematic sermon. Once I was, 
and so arranged my plans and propositions as to 
bring out about all there was in the text, as I ignor- 
antly supposed, but since truth has grown so pro- 
foundly deep and sublimely high, I just cleave off 
one side of a text and go to work at that, and even 
then at times get overwhelmed. And this is my 
present trouble ; it is so difficult to find texts small 
enough, or rather such as have but one prominent 
idea in them. 

Here I have a passage before me of great and pre- 
cious words — words that bend with the weight of 
wondrous truth : 

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abun- 
dantly above all that we ask, or think, according to 
the power that worketh in us, 

"Unto bim be glory in the Church, by Christ Jesus, 
throughout all ages, world without end." — Eph. 3 : 
20, 21. 

This may be called the Great Doxology. We feel 
it to be great, but how great who can say, as we see 
only the commencement of it, and no doubt the least 
exciting part ? 

It begins in time, it is true, but the climax is re- 
served for the world without end. 

But the mystery is that such views and visions — 
such clear perceptions and holy revelations — should be 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST. \) 

had in prison. We generally go up in this world's 
affairs for extensive observations. But in things 
spiritual, as if to confound analogy and disappoint 
wicked prediction, God generally gives to his saints 
the clearest and broadest out-looks from the lowest 
stand-points of earth. 

Look at Paul and Silas in the inner prison, praying 
and signing praises to God at midnight, perhaps sign- 
ing— 

iC Come on, my prisoners in distress, 
My comrades through this wilderness. " 

How happiness in such a place as this takes the 
world unawares ! How disappointed that persecuting 
throng to find light and cheer and holy triumph 
breaking forth from those dark cells ! 

Shall Satan then boast himself over God's delays as 
failures? Shall he call the postponement of a victory 
the downfall of his cause ? Shall he count on hav- 
ing deprived the world of a promised good, because 
he has thrust ministers into the inner prison, or be- 
headed a saint? Does he call that the end of God 
because he can go no further ? 

Let wickedness know that the great triumphs of 
truth often begin at Satan's strongest endings. 

Is righteousness defeated — is the voice of God 
suppressed — because Paul and Silas, or Bunyan and 
Luther, are thrust into prison ? 

Nay, verily, the great words of truth which have 
come through prison grates are thrilling the world 
to-day. 



10 YINELAND. 

The word of God is not easily bound. 

Again, Paul kneels, as upon his hard chains in pri- 
son, and prays, and here it is, in part at least, in this 
chapter. How comprehensive his views of God's 
ability to save — how sublime his conceptions of the 
impartial atonement — how lifted up into an attitude 
of holy confidence, as if he had the right to prorogue 
the upper throne, holding the ear of heaven to the 
voice of triumph, even against prison darkness and 
the clank of chains ! 

The secret is, this holy ambassador is only here in 
appearance ; the great me of that man soars defiantly 
above the prisons of earth, with scarce enough of 
him within reach of murderous hands to make chains 
hold to. 

To be happy when every thing about us is calcu- 
lated to make us so, is nothing remarkable. This 
comes within the comprehension of all. 

But to be happy when there is nothing visible to 
make us happy, is beyond the philosophy of this 
world. 

But more than this : to be happy against circum- 
stances and condition — to be happy in opposition to 
every thing in the outside world — is one of God's 
miracles. Here is a prisoner with the most of the 
world against him, yet he exults, he is joyful. He is 
subjugated to the power of chains and a dark prison, 
it is true ; still he triumphs. And instead of lament- 
ing his decided course and faithful preaching — of 
predicting the downfall of the infant Church through 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST. 11 

this reproach and failure, as the world would call it 
— he notifies his brethren of their honor in his chains, 
predicting the furtherance of the gospel through his 
imprisonment. And stranger still, this same prisoner, 
as if filled with all containable good and glory, turns 
his prayer into praise, closing with this wondrous dox- 
ology which I have chosen for my text. 

The passage contains three prominent thoughts or 
topics, to wit : 

First. What God is to the Church. 

Second. What the Church is to God. 

Third. That what God is to the Church, and what 
the Church is to God, is by Christ Jesus throughout 
all ages, world without end. 

We rarely find a text containing three propositions 
of such breadth of scope, and interest so thrilling, as 
the one before us. The first of these three topics 
will be sufficient for the present occasion. 

Although we may never be able to speak on the 
second and third propositions alluded to, yet we 
dimly see the redeemed Church finally coming forth 
from the wrecks of worlds as the chief and the ever- 
lasting glory of God. That while the smaller glories 
of creation go down in deep oblivion, this Church 
glory shall run on — run on, world without end. 

Then the other idea : That after Christ shall have 
come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all 
them that believe, and shall deliver up the kingdom 
and the glory to God, and high Heaven shall take on 
its eternal ecstatic mood, and the ascriptions from 



12 VINELAND. 

the Church to God shall set in, I seem to hear from 
every kindred, tribe, nation and dispensation, in 
mighty chorus, 

By Christ Jesus throughout all ages ! 

No song shall be considered finished that does not 
celebrate Christ Jesus as the thrilling name of all 
ages, world ivithout end t 

How the rejectors of the divinity of Christ will 
relish a heaven that ascribes glory the most glorious, 
glory the most lasting, to the interposition and meri- 
torious death of Him whom they deny, is doubtful, 
that is, provided they ever find that place. 

Is this to be the conclusion, then, that the glory of 
the Infinite Trinity is to be subject to this condition, 
that it comes through the redemption of a mere man 
— a mortal Nazarene. 

Is the Heavenly Throne to stand eternally indebted 
for its highest honor andloudest ascriptions of praise 
to the merit of a mortal ? 

However such may object to the conditions of this 
glory, or criticise the God manifest in flesh, one 
thing is evident, that the redeemed multitudes — 
those who have washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb, whether on earth or 
in heaven — will not allow the Jesus of Jehovah to 
become obsolete. 

This is the name ordained to inspire and thrill the 
songs and cycles of the world without end ! 

But our more immediate concern relates to the first 
topic of the text, to wit : What God is to the Church. 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST. 13 

• Without stopping to say what He is not, let us 
come directly to the question by saying, God to the 
Church is salvation in the most comprehensive 
sense. 

Whether I succeed in making it appear or not, I 
mean more by the assertion than my hearers suspect. 

I do not mean that salvation is incidental, nor that 
salvation is one work, with others to be provided for. 
I mean to say, that the salvation of the human race is 
the one great enterprise of the Infinite — that this is 
the grandest idea that ever loomed in the fog of eteiv 
nity ; and this, as far as we know T , is the only work 
in God's hands to-day. * 

And if we run the history back, we shall find all his 
words and works and ways, as for as the record goes, 
relate directly or indirectly to this all-controlling 
object. 

How otherwise shall we account for the vast out- 
lay of creative wisdom and power — how justify this, 
munificence of worlds, except in the fact that a holy 
human race was the grand object at which great 
creations aimed as their reason and justification ? 

It is said there were two full moons in the montht 
of March last, and astronomers tell us that such a. 
phenomenon has not been known, since the world 
was made, as two full moons in one month. 

If this be so, what is the inference but this, that 
the first full series of the ponderous revolutions have- 
only been gone through with once ? 

Think of that, O mortal, then hold thy breath!' 



14 VINELAND. 

Six thousand years bringing through the first figure 
in the dance of worlds ! 

Now, suppose an angel were to go out from His 
throne, and, stopping at some distant star, should ask 
what all these worlds and system of worlds were for, 
and the reply should be, "To see how pretty they 
would look," would he not be ashamed? But, sup- 
pose he were to be told that these w r ere to serve a 
holy race, that man w^as the favorite of God, and 
that these great contrivances were so arranged as 
to bring their blessings to this favorite of Heaven, 
would they not glorify God both in the object and 
the means ? 

For this grand object the Trinity is set apart — to 
this w 7 ork the Throne of Heaven is committed, as 
seen in God's fore-knowledge and fore-ordination, and 
the pre-arrangement of His works, and the final 
anointing of His Son for the redemption of the race 
now fallen. 

If God does any thing aside from salvation, it is a 
work of necessity — a necessity growing out of the 
rebellion of men or of angels — that, too, for which 
no previous arrangements had been made. Hell it- 
self is an after-thought — an expedient devised on an 
emergency for the protection of the universe against 
the malice of fallen angels — for the time was when 
no such apostates existed. And as the Lord never 
designed the existence of wicked beings, his universe 
was not arranged for them. 

So also the rebellion of man took the Lord on sur- 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST. 15 

prise, that is, as far as previous arrangements were 
concerned. 

If we could go back to the chart of God's original 
purposes, we should find no intimation of sin and 
ruin, of death and hell, but rather that all men might 
be saved. 

Hence the unnaturalness — the strangeness to God 
— of meeting this sin-necessity which had been forced 
upon His hands. 

Hear the final interpretation of original design, as 
indicated in the last sentence : 

M Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire 
prepared for the Devil and his angels." 

Implying that the rebellion of man was an event 
so monstrously unnatural and unlooked for, that the 
Lord had no arrangement for disposing of human 
sinners. Then, as if the universe was so taken up 
with broad and far-reaching plans of life and salva- 
tion, of heaven and immortality, that there was no 
space left to make a place in for the banishment of 
this second race of apostates, — hence depart to the 
place prepared for the Devil and his angels. 

But when the Judge comes to his natural work — 
the work of his heart and his purpose — to that for 
which the universe had been contrived — how changed 
the manner — how easy and godlike the welcome : 
"Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world?" 

Here is reference to two original purposes being 



16 VINELAND. 

worked out at the same time. Mansions in glory for 
unborn millions, and this earth-home of time to get 
them ready in, and both being builded at once. 

Laying the foundations of the earth — lifting up the 
sides of the north, then adding another mansion in 
the upper kingdom — a blow here, then a blow there 
— creations here alternating with creations there. 

Are my hearers ready to ask what all this has to 
do with the text — with God's ability to save ? 

Is it of no importance to our faith and hope to 
know that the production of holy human beings is 
natural to the heart of the Infinite — natural to his 
power and his holiness ? And that his great crea- 
tions, along with his predeterminations and fore- 
ordinations, are in harmony with the disposition of 
his unchangeable nature ? Does not ability to save 
rest back in the divine nature, and is there no power 
in naturalness ? Then is there a greater work con- 
ceivable than the production of human beings in the 
likeness of God ? And was not this the highest aim 
of the Trinity, through all his wondrous works and 
ways, both in creation aud redemption ? 

If salvation, or the production of holy beings, in- 
stead of being an incident or a secondary thought, 
is shown to be the great, sole idea of the divine 
mind, emerging from eternity before time was — that, 
too, after which and for which the worlds were made 
— is it no argument in favor of God's ability to save ? 

But our chief interest relates to the present state 
of things. How has God's ability to save, been 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST. 17 

affected by the fall of man and the curse of the 
world? 

For a great change has taken place. Man began 
favorably. He started with a bright prospect. He 
was not only a natural Christian, but he was located 
just a little out of Heaven, in the twilight of that 
bright world, within speaking distance of his God. 

But alas, alas ! In that same favored place Adam 
rejected the word of the most high for the sophistry 
and lie of Satan, and turning his back on God, went 
into fellowship with a fallen spirit. How great the 
change ! Ere the sun of that fatal day went down, 
eveiy light in upper paradise went out to man, and 
angels turned their backs on ruin too vast and dark 
for sight. 

Man is a failure — he has gone to ruin — another re- 
bellion has come into the universe. 

In this terrible crisis what can be done ? 

Will the Lord hold to his eternal purpose — will 
he still insist on the original idea — the production of 
human beings in the likeness of himself? Or will 
he negotiate with anti-christ for half Christians ? 
Will he consent to Satan's holding the heart on the 
condition that a respectable life is given to God ? for 
evidently the gall of sin has gone deep into the 
fountain. 

The answer to these questions will somewhat de- 
velop God's power to save. It is a prevailing error 
with the unconverted, that the Lord can save any 
one if he sees fit to do so — that the salvation of man 



IS VIXELAXD. 

rests on God's prerogative, without reference to law, 
to fitness, or moral necessity. 

My friends, the salvation of fallen man necessitated 
the greatest sacrifice and overture ever known. The 
manner of the upper throne — in some respects the 
government and the moral universe — were recon- 
structed to meet this startling emergency, which had 
been smuggled into this new-made world. To make 
it possible for God to be just, in justifying him that 
believeth in Jesus, a reason must be produced. 

The fall of man brought on a stress of circum- 
stances which the Infinite himself was not prepared 
directly to meet, but he wss prepared to commit him- 
self by promise to the full reparation of the mighty 
ruin at some future period. 

Four thousand 3-ears were occupied in the prepa- 
ration of heaven and earth for the consummation of 
wondrous redemption. 

In these long years salvation was proffered and 
received on the promissory principle, on the credit 
of the Son of God, who stood committed, as the 
Lord's anointed, to the incarnation and crucifixion 
for lost man. He stood for four thousand years in 
the court of Heaven, representing the Lamb slain — 
the substance of all the shadows — the significance of 
all the sacrifices, from lighteous Abel down to the 
rending of the veil in the sight of Calvary. I said 
the manner of the heavenly throne in a sense had 
been reconstructed to meet the new condition of 
things. I do not mean that the nature or attributes 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAYING THE LOST. 19 

of the Divine being had been revolutionized or 
changed, but that the Infinite had taken on new 
manifestations, and instituted new relations to man, 
suited to his ruined condition. Hence the new titles 
of the godhead, as Jesus and Christ, Eedeemer, Sanc- 
tifier, etc. 

These are modern titles of recent origin, and stand 
for this new interposition and manifestation of God 
to the lost. The coupled titles of Christ Jesus relate 
directly to both parties, God and man. 

The Christ of Jesus belongs to God, and not to us 
directly. As Christ, he is the Lord's anointed, set 
apart as the propitiatory sacrifice — the Lord's reason 
for justifying a penitent believer. 

The Jesus of Christ belongs directly to lost man, 
and forms the sole argument with God why a peni- 
tent may be pardoned of his sins. 

So with respect to the terms of salvation, new con- 
ditions have been instituted, such as are suited to the 
lost. In the place of perfect works as the condition 
of acceptance with God, it is now faith in Jesus 
Christ as our sacrifice for sin, and God's reason for 
pardon. Originally, man's only plea for acceptance 
with his Maker was hereditary righteousness and 
perfect works, while under the new order of things, 
man's best and only argument with heaven is his 
own sinfulness and the merit of Jesus. Just these 
two thoughts or pleas, urged at the gate of the king- 
dom of grace, insure acceptance. 

The former system was arranged for saving the 



20 VINELA]ND. 

righteous, while the redemptive plan is adapted to 
saving sinners from sin, so that a bankrupt in works 
has the best hope of all others of being restored by- 
faith. But mark this ; faith don't go halves with 
works for righteousness ; neither do we believe hear- 
tily with a good stock of works on hand, from which 
we hope to realize. 

There is no way in heaven or earth for saving part 
bad and part good sinners. God's power to do ex- 
ceedingly and bless abundantly, is adjusted to all 
ruin — to those who are all bad — so that the doubtful 
point now is, not whether we are good enough for 
God to help, but whether we are bad enough in our 
own estimation to attract God's pity and accept of a 
bankrupt's Saviour. 

God's ability to save men fallen rests ultimately on 
the legality of the atonement. 

The sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the whole 
world derives its merit not from the fact that he was 
a righteous and holy man, nor yet because he was 
divine, but because he was God manifest in the flesh 
for a specific purpose, and representing the union of 
the two natures both in living and in dying. 

God's power to save acts through his redemptive 
relations with the lost — these relations, though mys- 
teri us, are nevertheless constitutional. 

Let no one, then, be pestered with the insinuation, 
that in asking God to do "exceeding abundantly," 
etc., that he is asking him to turn aside from his 
course, or to violate some attribute of his nature. 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST, 21 

Nay, the system of redemption is not a thing of suf- 
ferance, an expedient so unnatural and inharmonic 
with the heavenly throne, that the gracious God 
must be importuned to bring him over some restraint 
of his nature, or some impediment in the moral con- 
stitution in saving the lost. 

Nay, verily, saving lost men through redemption — - 
since the Son of God has taken upon him our nature, 
our flesh, for the specific purpose of redeeming — is 
as natural to the Trinity as was the production of 
holy Adam by creation. 

The salvation of lost man, through the incarnation 
aud offering of Jesus Christ, being on a line with the 
divine nature and his original creations, it is rein- 
forced by the powers of the heavenly throne and the 
eternal decrees. The salvation of sinners, through 
repentance and faith in Christ, interests the holy 
powers and beings of the universe. 

This redeemed empire, where God is restoring the 
fallen to the lost image of himself, is the seat and 
center of excitement and attraction for all worlds. 
Here the whole deity is known and felt. 

Not a sinner on earth can repent, but a thrill of 
pure delight is sent rippling through the immortal 
ranks to the other side of eternity. 

Heaven half lives on Christ's victories in time. 

To unsaved persons, on this ground, I wish to say, 
plainly and for your good, that you are resisting great 
light — great truth — truths that make devils tremble in 
hell to-day. 



22 VES T ELAND. 

You are breasting a tide of holy influence that 
•would well nigh waft reprobates heavenward. 

If you are lost, it will be against the decrees of 
God — against his will, his words and worlds. 

My brother man, do give up this sin-attitude toward 
God. You are a discordancy in yourself — in the gra- 
cious purposes of Christ and the design of creation. 
You are a contradiction of Calvary and the patience 
of heaven. Do put yourselves into agreement with 
the good wishes of all pure spirits, and the saving 
power of God, lest you pervert these life-giving in- 
fluences into a savor of death unto death. 

But the critical and most exciting point in our 
subject relates to the degree of this salvation. This 
idea is alluded to in the text in a seeming contradic- 
tory manner. 

First, this saving ability is made to transcend all 
measures aud limits, both of expression and thought 
— M exceeding abundantly ! M 

Then it seems narrowed down to the degree of the 
power that worketh in us. 

Perhaps this is the teaching of the text : That God 
does not and cannot save arbitrarily, or on the prin- 
ciple of prerogative, not even by any rule in him- 
self; that while his ability in himself transcends all 
thought, still the degree of every individual's salva- 
tion is determined in himself. 

What is the degree of his light — what is his capa- 
city for truth and God ? That is the measure which 
limits unbounded ability in its impartations. 



DIVINE ABILITY IX SAYING THE LOST. 23 

If the gracious God stops at any degree this side 
of great infinitude, it 's because a finite can bear no 
more. Yet after admitting this limitation, the spirit's 
impartations and revelations to man shall exceed his 
power of asking or of thinking. A religion that 
fails to take us into the Great Unspeakable, may be 
of man, but not of God. The popular standard of 
religion with the world, and even with many churches, 
stops at a respectable life. It 's not so important how 
one feels, what the motions of sin within may be, if 
they are only mastered by the body. 

This is fighting against great odds, just as though 
muscles could govern great emotional soul. The 
policy is, to suppress the badness of the heart, and 
practice good morals. 

Hence the watching and guarding — then sinning, 
repenting and confessing — then striving again, but 
disappointed, disgusted, shamed — now the bowed 
head and sad heart. The Lord pity such, for they 
are by multitudes. 

Friends, I know from long and sad experience 
what I am talking about — I know how to pity you* 

But this is going wrong — this is superficial — it 
does not touch the malady — this is H washing the 
Ethiope white" by external applications — this is only 
concealing the spots of the leopard. Dear man, pre* 
scribe for a spotted nature, and the spotted skin will 
come right : a spotted nature will always grow spots 
somewhere. 

A certain boy seemed to have been born a thie£— 
3 



24 VINELAND. 

always stealing. At length his father hit on a sover- 
eign remedy — it was all sovereign. He went to his 
neighbors with the glad news : " John has not stolen 
for three days." "How did you cure him ?" "Tied 
his hands behind him." So it is spiritually every 
where — persons considered saved when the heart is 
controlled to a decent life by outside restraints. Not 
only theft, but pride, anger and envy tied down — 
straps and cords running every where — -ministers in- 
sisting on watchfulness — on living straight, and all 
this — and this is just what they should preach — -and 
this is just what the people ought to do to govern 
themselves. 

But this is not religion. Certainly, it 7 s not being 
saved up to the standard of the text ; and perhaps 
only a gentleman in straps — more thanks to the 
straps than the gentleman at that. 

Now, the mistake in all this is not in the restraints, 
in watching, in mortifying and denying the fallen 
propensities. This is Bible teaching. 

The fatal error is this : in mistaking wickedness 
restrained for wickedness cured or destroyed — in 
perverting means from means to the end for which 
means were ordained — for substituting self-denial and 
a moral life for Christianity of the heart. 

God's philosoplry is not to begin with the fingers, 
but to strike at the seat of all moral action, making 
the fountain pure, then 'letting the stream go. No 
moral action is legitimate or virtuous that is not re- 
lated with the heart. 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST. 25 

My parents practiced very rigid restraints on their 
naughty child very young. But few boys, even in 
Massachusetts, and in the salutary times of sixty 
years ago, were made to follow a straighter line of 
conduct. They had eight different ways of punishing 
me, till father and mother both gave me up. in despair 
— yes, mother gave me up ! 

Although they did not cure their boy, I honor 
them to-day for the stringent discipline of my child- 
hood and youth. The wickedness of my nature was 
held in check, or I might have been carried too far 
for repentance, even. 

But when the Holy Ghost, at the youthful age of 
fourteen, reproved my soul of sin, something stub- 
born in me gave way. 

In one week from this my whole being was revolu- 
tionized. Here, at this first degree of the spirit's 
work, let us stop and ask if it is not unspeakable 
already. Here is the worst bojr in the neighborhood, 
with no revival, going from house to house — from 
field to field — in search of boys to pray with and 
talk to about their souls. Then in that after-change 
— after being in prayer with others till two o'clock 
in the morning — my soul was transformed from bad 
to good, as in the twinkling of an eye, and I ran out 
of that house, with both hands stretched toward the 
sky, exclaiming, Glory to God ! 

Was it not " exceeding abundantly? n 

Hear it, Christian and skeptic ! The first flash 
of light, the first motion of redeeming power, took 



26 VINELAND. 

me beyond myself — beyond the outmost verge of 
thought ! 

" Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abun- 
dantly ! V 

This testimony for God is not an isolated case — it 
is corroborated by thousands of witnesses on this 
ground to-day. 

There are at least two circumstances which seem 
important to the full triumph of redemption, viz. : 
First, that man should be saved in all his powers and 
parts — in the fullness of his being. 

Take this comparison of contrast : An individual is 
run over by the cars and terribly mangled. The sur- 
geon says, U I cannot save the whole of you. After 
cutting you down to the other side of brokenness 
and bruises, I may save what there is left." But this 
divine ability, which exceeds abundantly, promises 
to make the believer every whit whole — complete in 
Christ; soul, body and spirit restored to holiness, 
and preserved blameless, to final glory. The physi- 
cian says of that very sick friend, "I cannot cure 
you, sir, but I can help you to die more easy." He 
admits that death is master of the situation, and only 
hopes to abate the painfulness of the surrender. 

Can't cure you ! What a word is that ! 

But our physician is "mighty to save." He has 
taken hold of sin, both in its practice and results, 
with a strong hand. Through the washing of regen- 
eration for the soul, and final resurrection for the 
body, be proposes to cure the sicknesses and diseases 



DIVINE ABILITY IN SAVING THE LOST. 27 

both of soul and body — to heal the wounds and 
bruises of sin, and grow up even the scars of the old 
wounds so smoothly, that he may at last present the 
redeemed multitudes to the Father without spot or 
wrinkle, or any such thing. The abounding of grace 
must at least be equal to the abounding of sin. 

The other circumstance alluded to is, that man 
shall be restored where he went to ruin. 

The full salvation of the lost in this present life is 
of more importance in its relation to Christ's triumph, 
than we are apt to suppose. 

Christ chooses to demonstrate his power to save 
before the world, and for this purpose, in part, he 
holds the redeemed ones in long review, making 
them a gazing stock to angels and men. 

The Romish priests practical^' admit their inability 
to Christianize their subjects in this life; hence the in- 
vention of purgatory, in which remarkable doings are 
reported, for cash in hand. But God's ability to save 
is proven and manifested here in daylight. 

Again, a neighbor moves to the West, is taken with 
chills and fever ; the physician has very much helped 
him, but says, u You cannot stay well unless you move 
into some other country." 

Christ can cure of the malady of sin, and keep us 
cured in this same malarious world where the disease 
came on. Were it possible to take sinners even to 
heaven, or to any other place, and there make them 
holy, would be to evade the vital point in the conflict 
between heaven and hell. The question is, can Jesus 



28 VINELAND. 

Christ redeem lost man against the influences which 
took him to ruin ? Can he reverse sin against its 
own tide ? Can he practically contradict the power 
of the devil in the gates of hell, and lead captivity 
captive ? 

What has the reformation, in the nonsense of pur- 
gatory, to do with the crown of the king of kings ? 
The change of battlefield is a virtual acknowledg- 
ment of defeat. Christ came into this very world to 
destroy the works of the devil. And he claims for 
redemption a victory, in sight of his enemies — here, 
on this old arena of conflict — here, where the depre- 
dations were committed, and man went to ruin. 

When the Southern rebels, after four years of 
preparation, said we are ready — ready to break up 
the government of the nation — did we beg them to 
go to Canada for the strife ? Nay, we met the beast 
in his own lair. We went to their strong fortifica- 
tions, and wrenching their guns from the grasp of 
those who forged them, turned them back on their 
owners. We took this murderous mob by the power 
of guns and the valor and strength of right. 

After Satan had spent four thousand years in forti- 
fying this world against truth and God, lo ! He who 
is mighty to save, walked into this field of soul car- 
nage in dyed garments from Edom, when the gates of 
hell shook and the dead began to live ! Did our 
brave soldiers count it a small honor that they fought 
in Richmond, and that it was from Richmond that 
they came to the greetings and honors of home ? 



DIYINE ABILITY IN SAYING THE LOST. 29 

Who, in the spiritual warfare, could ask for more 
than to confess Christ before his enemies in the 
strongholds of sin ? — to rustle their white robes as 
on the ramparts of hell, in token of victory through 
the blood of the Lamb, and the next day go up to 
the welcome of, u Well done, good and faithful ser- 
vant ! " come, enter into my joy ; you have been in a 
dangerous place — you have witnessed for me in spir* 
itual Richmond — now come to your honor and your 
everlasting pension? 

Brethren, count not salvation doubtful, because of 
the long and dark catalogue of calamities, curses and, 
enemies which are to be overcome, for it 's the pre- 
rogative of a conqueror to wield the enemy's works 
against himself. This is another argument in favor 
of God's ability to save. He is bound to turn the 
guns of anti-christ against himself. 

Christ, as conqueror and captain of our salvation^ 
has overcome the world, and so reversed the re- 
sults and curses of sin to believers, as to make all 
things work for their good in life, and turned dying 
into an eternal gain, wheeling proud, defiant king of 
terrors into the attitude of waiter to victorious faith ! 
What must be the chagrin of the pale horse rider — 
this old monarch of sepulchres, who has struck dowa 
many a mighty one without leave or asking, to be> 
stopped so suddenly at his own portals, for a saint to 
finish his prayer and shout his last hosanna, and then>. 
at best, only put a conqueror to rest who had falleu 
asleep in Jesus ! 



30 



VINELAND. 



In concluding, let me exhort all present, with my- 
self, to aim high, and contend, by faith in the atone- 
ment of Christ, for the Bible degree of salvation. 
Let the aim of our every day existence pitch so high 
that no mortal can reach the mark without the inter- 
position and impartation of the Holy Ghost. For 
it ? s the prerogative of a saint to be that, and to do 
that, which no mere man can be nor do. 

Confound gainsayers by a divine supernaturalness, 
and compel the verdict of the world in favor of 
Christ, by a holiness that 7 s above the reach of hypoc- 
risy — by a spiritual mindedness that defies the power 
of mimicry. 

We hear a great deal about an intelligent religion. 
Probably we have much reason for such talk. But 
the religion of God is above intelligence— it ? s above 
explanation or comprehension — it 's both unspeakable 
and unthinkable, and can never come to our con- 
sciousness except through faith in Him who is able 
to do exceeding abundantly ! Unto whom be glory 
in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, 
world without end. Amen ! 



THRONE OF GRACE. 31 



MANHEIM. 



THRONE OF GRACE. 



Let us, therefore, come bcldly to the throne of grace. — Heb. 4: 16. 

We are familiar with thrones of judgment — of 
regal power and dominion. But here is one unlike 
all others ; it is the throne of grace ; a place for the 
dispensation of favors. It is that intermediate point 
between the eternal throne :.nd man's fallen state, to 
which the Infinite stooped in Jesus, letting himself 
down — down more than half way to the lost, and 
there ordained the first mutual meeting for God and 
man. 

Recollect, brethren, this meeting-place may be near 
at hand, for if w r e had far to go to find our God, we 
might never reach the place. Hence he, who from a 
feeling of distance or otherwise, pitches his prayer to 
the third heavens, will most surely miss this throne, 
without reaching the other. It is not our work to 
bring Christ down from above, or we might claim 
some credit for going so great a distance to be 
blessed. 

Again, this is the lowest point in the stoop of the 
Infinite for meeting destitute man. 



32 MANHEIM. 

It is true, the Spirit goes out in light and truth, 
reproving and convicting all the way down to the 
verge of death and ruin ; but there are no mutual 
meetings below this place of asking and giving. 

Could the scenes of the mercy seat be photo- 
graphed, we should have a picture of marvelous 
contrasts. Look in upon the downcast, dejected 
ones, on their way to God ; mark the bowed head — 
the tearful eye — the aching heart — the mighty load 
of sin and guilt, or of affliction and care. How dark 
in sackcloth they look ! But, O, the change, when 
the gracious One takes that load from the soul — when 
He wipes tears from every face, and breathes heaven 
into desolate ones ! Then the clap of hands begins. 

Mark these suppliants as they rise from prayer, 
with soul unfreighted of sin and darkness and death. 
Do you inquire where this wonderful place may be 
found? It is where the spiritual transformations 
take place — where the penitent is pardoned, and the 
soul is born again. It is where believers are sancti- 
fied, and saints go to sun themselves in the light of 
the unveiled face, and take in moral power and 
courage. It is where the elect go to put on the 
whole armor of God for the fight of faith. With 
these brief intimations of the character and relations 
of this throne of grace, the question of approach 
becomes interesting. 

We have time for only three inquiries in relation 
to the subject : 

First — What are the prerequisites to prayer? 



THRONE OF GRACE. 33 

Prayer literally signifies asking for favors. In the 
text, prayer implies asking in a particular way, and 
on particular grounds. 

We ask not on the ground of just recompense, but 
for blessings promised through that gracious inter- 
position by which mercy gives us rights through the 
promises, where justice would exclude our first and 
last plea, but for this interposition. 

I can speak now of only three particulars in our 
qualifications for coming to God. First and obviously, 
a sense of want ; and this, we may say, is where prayer 
begins. 

But a sense of want here means much; it ? s not 
enough that the all-wise Being knows our wretched- 
ness and poverty, and that we have confidence in his 
wisdom. We must fed our destitution as the All- 
Wise sees it. Our experience of wretchedness, and 
the Lord's estimate of us, must somewhat agree. 
And jirst here, I apprehend, may be found the chief 
doubt of success before God. 

The point of disagreement between man and his 
God, relates to his wretchedness — his sinfulness, and 
absolute need of a Saviour. 

There is nothing doubtful or critical in the Lord's 
exalting a beggar, even to a king and priest, unto him- 
self. It 's nothing with the Lord to relieve a bank- 
rupt, and even set him up in business. That's what 
this throne is for — to dispense favors to the destitute. 

We pass the critical point when we come to where 



34 MANHEIM. 

the Lord can work alone. He heals the broken 
hearted — he enriches the poor in spirit without help. 

The doubtfulness is on the other side, where 
haughty man is required to count as dross and loss, 
his amiable life, and conceited moral worth, and be 
reduced to but one plea, and that the merit of 
another. We so dislike the coming of the law — that 
holy commandment which drives our self-righteous- 
ness behind the revival— the uprising of sins, when 
we exclaim, O, wretched man that I am ! That's the 
case to pray — -that ? s a subject for God's gifts. 

The first triumph of the Holy Ghost in man, is to 
produce a felt necessity for Christ. There is a 
petition, rather common, which may lead astray, as 
it does not agree with this special work of the Spirit. 
It is this: " Bless us as thou seest we have need." 
No, my brethren, that is too cheap a prayer — some- 
what like wholesaling wants in the original package, 
without knowing what they are. This is "passing 
over the most critical point in the whole process of 
our salvation. 

The Holy Ghost is definite in his work, not only 
as the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the 
heart, but definite in his convicting power and wit- 
nessing voice. If we would appreciate the blessing, 
we must first be made conscious of the want. God 
cannot bless as He sees we have need, nor by any 
rule, power, or prerogative in himself. If he could, 
what a blessed world we should have down here on 



THRONE OF GRACE. 35 

these low grounds. But if the petition has reference 
to the Divine providences, or the bestowment of the 
means of grace, it is very proper. 

For instance, God could and did provide for the 
redemption of our race, as he saw we had need ; but 
the application of that atonement rests with indi- 
vidual man. Is there any authority for the opinion, 
that the Lord imparts to the soul by a rule in him- 
self? Are there measures in the heavenly store- 
house — does he give the Spirit by measures unto us? 
And at times does he deal out spiritual good in so 
stinted a manner, that Zion languishes ? Is that the 
cause — is the fault with heaven? Then let mourning 
cease, and sackcloth be laid aside. 

Nay, brethren, every one coming to this blessing- 
place, in the real, asking mood, is tilled, for every 
person carries in his own soul — in his own capacity, 
the measure of God to him, and always will. And 
every one that comes is filled, from high archangel 
down to babe in Christ. 

And if the gracious God can only have his w T ay 
with us, there will be times when he will more than 
bless us, or more than fill us ; there will come the 
pressing down bountifulness, till the soul is made to 
run over with imparted heaven ! Let my hearers 
mark this, that there is nothing critical in giving — in 
dispensing good ; that, the Lord does, without our 
agency. 

The conflict and the doubt is in making a place for 
the blessing — in producing a vacuum to be filled, or, 



36 



MANHEIM. 



in plain words, producing soul distress from want. 
This is the first prerequisite in coming to God. 

The second particular in our qualifications for 
prayer, looks forward to the disposition of the 
Answer, and involves the motive of asking. The 
test, or evidence to us, of righ't asking, is not so 
much in itself, as some teach, as in the answer. As 
giving is a practical endorsement of the asking, the 
Spirit requires a preparedness of heart, not only for 
receiving these new impartations, but also a purpose 
to improve them in the right direction. It may be 
profitable to ask ourselves, why we pray, and why 
we desire an answer to our great petitions ? What 
use do we propose to make of this augmentation of 
our spiritual gifts and graces? 

There must be some defect somewhere, or there 
would be more signs of answering. The prayer in 
itself may be all right and proper — proper that it 
should be answered even, provided the motive is right 
in desiring to receive. 

We may ask and receive not, because we ask amiss 
— amiss mostly in relation to the disposition of the 
answer ; it may be to consume it upon our lusts — 
upon self-aggrandizement, building up an aristocratic 
church, or in some way to make a worldly show. Is 
our faith really faith, or is it anxiety ? Does our con- 
cern for the lost, pass with indifference the unsaved in 
the church, to spend itself on those out of the church ; 
and is there no reason for this partiality, or have we 
pity and prayers for unsaved everywhere ? 



THRONE OF GRACE. 37 

Then is this concern the result of the love of God 
in us, or is it human instinct christianized and excited 
for the occasion ? Is it the impulse of that love which 
brought Christ from glory to Calvary, or is it only 
human sympathy aroused? Real faith, instead of 
being damaged by such questions, is made more con- 
fident, while the prayer of inspiration is re-assured by 
contrast with mere human sympathy. 

There is another circumstance in this connection, of 
sufficient importance to be considered, did time admit, 
viz : Our increased responsibility from the answer of 
prayer. Especially that great request: u To be bap- 
tized with the Holy Ghost and with fire/' that highest 
manifestation of God to man this side of glorification. 
While we do not question the sincerity of those who 
use this bold poetic sentence, still to hear it so often 
and so flippantly used on every occasion, seems irrev- 
erent to those who have only a moderate conception 
of its awful, glorious import. 

Still there are those, thank the Lord, and the num- 
ber is increasing, who act out the glorious power of 
this baptism. But ask them how they attained unto 
it ; go through their history of fightings within and 
fightings without ; see how much of conflict, of afflic- 
tion and self-crucifixion was required to tone their 
nature up to a life so divine. 

Then look at their oppressive sense of obligation, 
in view of God's patience with them, and the holy 
revelations and manifestations; mark the subordination 
of all this light, of these gifts and graces with the 



38 MANHEIM. 

adjustment of natural endowments to hard work — to 
unpopular work ; see how superhumanly they under- 
take for the world in the name of their God. 

O, my soul, adore Christ in these trophies of 
Calvary! How like lights in a benighted land they 
glow ! How they harmonize with their Master in the 
spirit of benevolence — of suffering and self sacrificing 
for the lost, almost living on the welfare of others — 
adjourning their own hosannahs of happiness over to 
glorification. 

My hearers will recollect that we have three par- 
ticulars under the first division of the subject, viz : 
1st. Sense of destitution. 2d. Purity of motive in 
desiring an answer. 3d. Appreciation of increased 
responsibility from increased gifts. 

Second — The second prominent idea of the subject 
relates to the encouragements of prayer. We are 
invited to come boldly : 1st. In opposition to doubt- 
fulness or uncertainty. 2d. In opposition to excessive 
timidity from a sense of unworthiness. 3d. But more 
specially, unlike the trembling fear of the ancient high 
priests, growing out of the minute and critical per- 
formance of their office under the ceremonial law, 
where an error through ignorance or carelessness in 
the preliminary services, either for himself or for the 
people, might go unnoticed till the priest entered the 
holy of holies for intercession, when he might be 
struck dead for the mistake of yesterday. Hence the 
stress of the following words : M Seeing, he ever liveth 
to make intercession for us." Intercession is not only 



THRONE OF GRACE. 39 

the last act of atonement, but also the test act ; if 
God accepts the high priest in this last and crowning 
act. it is evidence that the preliminaries are accepted 
also. 

Not so under the gospel : perfection of previous 
service is not a condition of acceptance before the 
mercy seat. It's not by virtue of the critical per- 
formance of ceremonies that God proposes to hear 
our prayer — not so much by the precision of acts, or 
the grammar of words, as by the logic of distress. 
Xot so much by what the tongue says, as by the 
great unutterable talk of soul. 

The Indian woman had been instructed by the 
missionaries in some things — her dark soul was 
troubled — in her ignorance she went to prayer with 
but two English words, and as God was English, and 
knew nothing of Indian language, she used her two 
words : January. February — January, February. This 
was her mouth prayer; but her soul repented, and 
believed in Indian. God answered by the untrans- 
lated Indian of her soul. A deaf and dumb man in 
Massachusetts, motioned with his hands to God ; with 
what unutterable groanings from that pent-up soul, 
who can say? God. seemed to answer his hands. 

Our principal encouragement in approaching the 
throne of grace, is referred to in the word therefore, 
which alludes to Christ as our Mediator. Christ, by 
making atonement for us. has constituted this asking 
and giving an established law of the kino-dom of 
srace. 

4 



40 MAXHEDI. 

Let no one, then, be perplexed in their faith, with 
the insinuation, that prayer is taxed with bringing 
the Lord over legal impediments, or of persuading 
him away from original purpose to hear the prayer 
of mortals. 

No, my brother, if that is your view, you are going 
wrong — you are expecting to approach through the 
Jehovah title of Deity, where he is a consuming fire* 

Prayer, through the Mediator, takes us into the 
open face of God — into the Jesus of his name, where 
he always smiles — forever saying to needy ones, come 
and be blessed for Christ's sake — come into the chan- 
nel of life's broad river, the outgoings of the gracious 
God. Now, it is just here, in this outflow of the 
Divine graciousness, the Lord has established the 
place for asking, so that he who comes to God 
through Christ Jesus, comes the life and blessing- 
wa}', he must receive. 

Third — Another encouragement is found in the 
two-fold character of our Mediator : he is not only 
the middle man of two diverse parties, but he is part 
and nature of both, so that whoever comes into 
fellowship with the Advocate, comes into harmony 
with himself and God. 

That the invisible One has made himself so familiar, 
through the incarnation, we dare to approach the lofty 
One, and even speak, when it is a human voice saying, 
I am the way to God. 

But the adequacy of Christ, as advocate, is seen in 
the following illustration : 



THRONE OF GRACE. 41 

Suppose we lived in a monarchal government, and 
one of us a poor, obscure man, had a cause to present 
to the king — one peculiar to this class of society. 
Do you not see, brethren, the difficulty of finding a 
competent advocate to present the case ? If he would 
put his soul and sympathy into the cause, he must 
have the experience of a poor, ignorant man ; he must 
belong with this class of society. But you see that 
the very things which qualify him for one party, cut 
him off from the other. Will the king hear such a 
man? He will, no doubt, hear the king (if he is 
allowed to come so near), asking who this stranger is, 
that presumes to adjourn the business of his throne, 
to hear a talk about another stranger, whom no officer 
in my court knows. What are your claims on my 
attention, and my government? What office did you 
ever fill under my reign? Can't hear you, sir — no 
claims here. 

But when we come to our Advocate — the adorable 
Redeemer, how mighty to save — mighty with both 
parties ! 

Through his double character — his two-fold nature, 
he spans the mighty gap from upper throne to the 
verge of Hell ! 

By his regal and divine nature, he sways the court 
of heaven ; adjourning, if need be, the creation of a 
world, to hear his pleadings and groanings for lost 
humanity ! Yes, for humanity, over whom the wrath 
of that throne is hanofino- ! 

By his human nature, he lets himself down to 



42 MANHEIM. 

companionship with the wretched and the lost, reach- 
ing a poverty below what falls to the lot of birds and 
foxes ! 

By his experience of the manger — the wilderness — 
the cross, and the grave, he has put himself into rela- 
tionship and sympathy with all the essential condi- 
tions of humanity. Hence he is naturally touched 
with the feeling of our infirmities. 

This is our Intercessor, who has put his soul and 
body — body bloody from the cross, into the lost and 
ruined cause of our race. 

Now, saints, pray ! Lift up thy head, O Daughter 
of Zion, toward the heavenly hills, for the way is 
open, and beaming with the smiles of welcome clear 
up to thy God. 

Fourth — The relation of prayer to God's moral 
character. 

It is seen in this, that character is committed in 
promise more than in works. That prayer proceeds 
not only on the credit of promise, but prayer more 
than all things else, is the test and verification of 
promise. "For all the promises of God in him are 
yea, and in him amen, to the glory of God, by us? 
By us. See 2 Cor. 1-20. 

There is more of the Divine character revealed and 
verified through Christians than in all the creations 
of God. Creation has no moral meaning in itself. 
The Almighty might create scores of other planets, if 
there were room to crowd them in, or he could, with 
the breath of his mouth, clear a gap across the 



THRONE OF GRACE. 43 

heavens, clean of worlds, without affecting, in the 
least, his character. 

But to let the sigh of a penitent go unnoticed, or 
leave a saint in the struggle of faith a little too long, 
would forfeit his word, and shake the confidence of 
his kingdom in the integrity of the throne. He 
might allow the sun to run out of his track, or so tip 
the polls as to mix up days and nights all around the 
globe, without touching his veracity, for he has not 
said that he would, or would not, do such things. 
But if he fails to be where two or three are met in 
his name, the promise goes down, and with it his 
character, for his appointment to be there is pub- 
lished, and he must be there. Though a world stood 
in his way, he'd whirl it into nonentity before he 
would see a promise fail, for these are some of the 
words which shall outstand heaven and earth both, 
the last jot and tittle of which shall be fulfilled. 

Hence faith and prayer is as certain as promise, for 
God has joined them together. 

He who kneels in holy prayer according to the 
Divine will, plants himself on the immutable word — 
on the Rock of Ages, which has withstood the gates 
of hell for centuries past, and down to this day it is 
said, behold, he prayeth — prayeth as in the ancient 
days — with unabated confidence in the tried word of 
the faithful One. Could an imaginary Deity survive 
the test of faith and prayer for six thousand years, 
and yet hold the confidence of the universe, not 



44 MANHEIM. 

excepting the world of woe ? for devils believe even 
unto trembling. 

There is somewhere an observatory built of stone, 
and resting deep down on a rock. On the top of 
this high column is poised the telescope. Then there 
is a wooden structure surrounding this column all the 
way up ; this is for breaking the vibrations of the 
atmosphere, and for a stairway. This outside struc- 
ture is expected to shake, but no trembling may be 
allowed within. So if we could look within the 
clay-house tenement of a saint, whose posts are shak- 
ing with infirmity and outside storms, we should find 
the soul in the rest of faith, leaning on his God, 
saying, none of these things move me. 

That old planet, Uranus, eighteen hundred millions 
of miles from the sun, had stood for ages as a reliable 
boundary in the heavens — always true to his course — 
always on time, but of late years it ha4 been observed 
to wander and become unsteady. When astronomers 
everywhere became perplexed over this strange phe- 
nomenon, and set themselves to work to solve the 
mystery, two men living far apart, conceived the 
idea that some new comer must be approaching, 
whose influence affected the gravity of old Uranus. 

In 1846, these two men, at the same time, set their 
long tubes ransacking the heavens for the intruder. 
On — on they ran their gaze, till out two billions, 
eight hundred millions of miles, their two looks met 
on what ailed Uranus. There they saw great Nep- 
tune, coming out of the back chambers of the Uni- 



THRONE OF GRACE. 45 

verse, driving up toward the neighborhood of worlds, 
when the old w r ay-marks of ages began to reel. But 
he who has made the Lord his refuge and strength, 
is more reliable and important than Uranus or the 
moon, and will outlive them both. For the righteous 
shall never be moved. 

The man of faith, standing on his knees, is an 
unmovable power. Held out into the tribulations 
of earth in God's own hand, who shall harm him? 
It has been the aim of persecution for the long ages, 
to find the place where God takes hold of man — by 
some means to cut the tie that binds a mortal to the 
arm of Omnipotence — severing the ligament that 
unites weakness with power. But his name is still 
the same, "Mighty in God"/ A saint, in harmony 
with the Divine will, wields, to an extent, the powers 
of the world to come ; and at times is allowed to> 
dictate Jehovah's thunder ! 

He is a match for persecution — he is more thai* 
prisons and lions ; yea, more than fire, or nature, for 
nearly every law in nature has been made to tura 
aside to let this conquerer through. 

The chains of persecuted Peter are cleft asunder 
by the blow of an angel ; w T hile iron gates swing; 
back by an unseen power ! 

Look at Moses, standing in the breach, as if allowed 
to withstand the Infinite — taking hold of the naked 
sword in God's own hands, turning back wrath from 
Israel ! Look at Joshua, with a promised victory 
about to fail. And notwithstanding the Lord had 



46 MANHEIM. 

marshaled a regiment of clouds into the service of faith, 
opening a cannonading from over head, yet the battle 
goes hard against the promise ; the whole course of 
nature stands in contradiction to prayer and promise 
both. What can be done in this emergency? 

Suppose one failure of the immutable word could 
so be hid from the gaze of intelligences as to save the 
honor of the upper throne, could God afford to spoil 
a saint, just for the sake of nature's routines? Then 
here is an opportunity for calling the attention of the 
Universe to the faithfulness of Jehovah — that he 
honors his word above all his name. Now let it be 
known that the event to take place — this great hush 
in the mighty sweep of nature's courses, is in behalf 
of a saint on his knees, holding a promise in his faith ! 

Joshua takes a survey of the prospect, then goes to 
prayer. He asks what shall be done in this emer- 
gency? Time is wanted ; O, for one full day at this 
critical juncture. Joshua looks at the battle, then at 
the sun, then to heaven, repeating the promise. 

At last intimates the wondrous expedient, that it's 
best for creation to be stopped. It's true, it seems a 
bad place to stop at, with the sun rushing clown 
the western slope. But faith says, stand still where 
you are ! When the old worlds were steadied down 
to a dead stop, for a man at prayer, making two days 
out of one with no night between ! 

Now, ye saints of the Lord, if nature and worlds 
have been subject to prayer through the Divine inter- 
position, and have been made to turn aside for it's 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 47 

ay you Dot ask and receive the fullness of 
saving grace, when savij > elievers to the uttermost 
i- ib hai ::. be th ? Take this 

great b your faith and the confidence of your 

he:,: : — the Divine charac- 

td the h :s are committed to the 

prayer oi faith — it must prevail! Now ask and 

.-. thai $ . ir j y m y ' b full. 



TALK- AXD TESTIMONIES.* 

MILLENNIUM BEGUN. 

Perhaps it was 1 p who made this 

i: u We have on this ground 
the beginning of Millennium. Up yonder is a tent 
of Baptists, Presbyterians and Quakers — all happy 

in the fellowship of love. That is Millennium on a 

small scale." 

The Sermon of Power. 

The sermon of Brother G. C. Wells, of Troy Con- 
ference, was a wonderful portrayal of God's method 
of saving man. It was remarkable in the application 
of Bible truth in Bible words. Its effect on that vast 
congregation was like a great front wave, rolling out 
through the placid waters — tipping and rocking every 
craft, both small and great, in the neighborhood. 
From that point on. the work ran deep. 

•Reported in the fiTurikem Independent. 



48 MANHEIM. 

Fraternity of the Stand. 
The stand contained quite a congregation of humble, 
loving, kingdomized brothers — all ministers of Jesus 
Christ. Only two that we suspected as being clergy- 
men were observed. They went away. 

Faithful Ministers Can't be Starved Yet. 
A lay brother — perhaps from New York — exhorted 
the ministers to be true and deal faithfully with souls, 
and not spare sin in the Church, and he believed they 
w r ould be supported in it: but if they should become 
needy, let him know it — he had the wherewith to 
help them. God had given him the means, and he 
was ready to apply it. As much as to say, "My 
money goes for the thorough healing of the hurt of 
Zion, before frescoing and organs." 

A Pilgrim Going Up. 

A Quaker sister, seventy years of age, in a love 
feast of four thousand — rising upon a bench far out 
in the thicket of joyous faces, all wrinkled, gray and 
thin, like a spectre in clothes — spread forth her bony 
hands, crying out, "I am about ready to depart; my 
grave-clothes are falling off." 

About this time a number of waves met, drowning 
her voice, w T hen another of God's kingdom tumults 
came on. The swaying and rocking of that multi- 
tude, under the rushing, mighty wind dispensation of 
heaven to earth, resembled a cedar forest in a storm. 

Perhaps some, whose experience is confined to the 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 49 

Mosaic dispensation, would call this confusion. Ah ! 
no, my friend ; we are not up to the Jerusalem bed- 
lam yet. That is considered all right. 

Human Little and Divine Great. 

testimony of brother pomeroy in one of the 
love feasts. 

The contrast between the human little and the 
Divine great in me, is becoming wider and wider. 
They have quite gone out of balance. 

Yes, brethren, the apostle has it right: "When I 
am weak, then am I strong. 77 The price of power 
borrowed is native weakness confessed. 

Now I am going to say something worth hearing ; it 
is none of my contrivance that I allude to. I am more 
and more convicted of the justice of ascribing to 
Christ the glory of all there is of me worthy of praise. 

There is no form of words that I know of, by which 
I can more justly humble myself, and exalt my 
gracious Redeemer, than by quoting a remark of my 
father — now entered into rest. 

Some years after I had entered the ministry, on 
returning to the old homestead in Pittsfield, Mass., 
as we were alone in the field, father says, '.' Benjamin, 
you have caused your parents more trouble than all 
the rest of the children. 77 O, how it afflicted me! 
I wept for grief. "But, 77 said he, "lean say some- 
thing more : you have, been more comfort to your 
parents than all the other children. 77 Then I wept 
for joy. So there were two weepings going on at once. 



50 MANHEIM. 

Now, brethren, I want it distinctly understood that 
all the difference — and you see what it is — from the 
most trouble to the greatest comfort, which makes a 
great contrast in a parent's heart — all the »: ifferenee 
between that naughty, wicked, aboriginal Benjamin, 
and this kingdom child, goes to the credit of Jesus 
Christ. Yes, all of it. 

For I am not one of those native gems of humanity, 
imbibing so much respectability and virtue from 
ancestors as to be grown into the rest of religion — 
saving the strait-gate struggle. No! no! it required 
the Lord's great, old-fashioned regeneration to make 
me a Christian. Look out for these religious Topseys, 
who were " never born, but grow'd up!" Nov/, my 
friends, after all this, do you expect a moderate 
religion in me? Do von look for a tame, quiet con- 
servative? If so, you mistake your case. Anything 
less than holy radicalism would be atheism in me. 

Every generation of my ancestors, on my father's 
side, for two hundred j'ears, had been members of 
the Presbyterian Church — not an exception, until this 
apostate boy, fourteen years old, broke the succession, 
taking a link square out of the chain. 

I was brought up to believe that this excitement 
in religion was nonsense — the silliest thing known. 
I hated the Methodists with a perfect hatred, and 
nothing on earth or heaven cured me of this hate but 
an experience of the pme unchangeable religion I 
had reviled. 

And now, after reproaching such an aristocratic 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 51 

family — as some say — and coming all the way through 
on this line, am I to close up at last on the mockery 
of a time-servingr, free-mason affair? No! by the 
grace of God — no ! The Lord and Christians have 
borne too long with me. Many who prayed for me 
have gone to the grave. I stand a trophy of the 
struggles of the dead ; and do I linger behind to 
play the traitor over saintly bones, and rob the 
glorified of hard-won stars? 

With respect to this movement, I consider myself 
very much mixed up with the object of this meeting — 
am all alive to this great speciality; this note of 
alarm to the fashionable, worldly religion; this con- 
quering power of Christ in Zion. This is essential 
Methodism, as it was, as it is, and ever shall be. This 
is Christianity in earnest — this is Christ's reigning 
attitude over sin. Let thy kingdom come. Amen. 

Beyond the Fathers.* 

In a morning: meeting before the stand, Brother 
Pomeroy spoke substantially as follows : 

Perhaps I should amount to the most, measured 
lengthwise. My experience and recollection run back 
to midway of the centenary of Methodism. Brethren, 
don't call this a boast, that one can recollect how and 
what others did fifty years ago. 

I wish to prepare the way for this opinion, that 
what this people have here, is the "old kind of 
religion." This is a grand rally of old Methodism — 

*From the Northern Independent. 



52 MANHEIM. 

this is the power and glory which the fathers had, 
only this is on a broader scale, and no doubt more 
intelligent ; yes, brethren, in some respects we are 
beyond the fathers, and it's time we were. 

I rejoice in this revival of primitive godliness, when 
we shall not need to be carried back by some gray- 
headed pilgrim to fifty years behind, to get an idea 
of God's saving power. 

I have come three hundred miles to survey my only 
hope for the Methodist Episcopal Church. This 
meeting, perhaps the greatest ever known on this 
continent, represents that hope. This excitement — 
this work represented by this gathering, is a great, 
stubborn fact, for baptized worldliness and Satan to 
dispose of. This is the disturbing element that won't 
let death lie still — this is the life-power that walks 
the spiritual gravej^ards, shaking the dry bones of 
soul corpses. Let Young America come here, and 
take an account of what it has to overcome before it 
can pervert this great Church to the objects of 
worldly pomp. 

The gracious God has seemed to supplement my 
spiritual nature of late years with a new power. He 
has said it over again, Live! When lo, like a resur- 
rection, I came forth into a great, sublime existence ! 
But O, the majesty and power of this second waking — 
of this late coming of God to my poor soul. It may 
be self-conceit, or a delusion, but I honestly believe 
that this deep and holy renewal, which God of late 
has imparted, is mostly for the purpose of represent- 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 53 

ing true Methodism against what is falsely so-called 
in my own church. Small as I am, by the grace of 
God, I expect to make some trouble for the aliens 
who propose to take this great church inheritance 
and run it oft' for a fair show in the flesh. I tell 
them plainly, that this old, spiritual homestead 
belongs to mother's real children, and it's not for 
them to move out of the family to get their rights ; 
no, be Methodists at home where we belong. Let 
the croakers go out, if any ; those who are finding 
fault with the system. 

I joined Methodism, and am under a vow to 
Methodism, and whoever presumes to apply his 
quackery to the essentials of this system — this great 
God-ism of the world, will find one mortal to pester 
him. Being loyal to Methodism is one thing, and 
being loyal to certain leaders and customs may be 
quite another thing. 

In conclusion I wish to say, we ought to be greatly 
encouraged. Light is coming over the mountains to 
this great mission church. Some of us poor things 
could almost afford to die after such a sight as this ; 
a sight so great in magnitude, yet greater in import. 
We see the smallest side of this sight. 

M} r hope is big for the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
That hope has been increasing for three years, and 
here we come to the assurance. This is the leaven 
that leavens the whole lump. 

Evidently we are coming back to our lost errand 
to the world, viz.: To spread scriptural holiness over 



54 MANHEIM. 

these lauds, and let us not think to substitute great 
benevolence or gorgeous churches for an errand so 
exalted as this. For this Church to accept of a 
mission anything less tl^an this, would be treason to 
God and the holy dead. 

Different Fashions of Living. 

his testimony at the 6 p. m. meeting appointed 
for ministers. 

I have been through various fashions of living in 
the past. First, on little toys, then on great toys, 
until the man exploits came on of doing a great 
amount of work ; then doing less, but doing it very 
precisely, whether anything else was accomplished 
or not, my work must be done about perfect. To 
commit a blunder in the performance of public duty 
would have hurt me more than a day of soul starving. 
Then on the opinion of others. It was a sweet morsel 
for men to say, he has a fine taste, he is reasonable, 
he has good sense, etc.; well, I don't despise these 
things much now, but it would not hurt me as bad 
to be called a fool as it once did ; neither happiness 
nor misery come from that source. I finally tried 
the entertainment of ordained dignity — the leanest 
bone I ever picked, and yet I see this table is very 
well filled, in some sections. But of late I have 
come to bear eating for a living; let outside circum- 
stances be one way or another ; come smile or frown, 
my soul clamors for the heavenly banquet. 

You will generally find me with the adults at this 



TALKS AST) TESTIMONIES. 55 

spiritual table, but on emergencies, I just trip around 
where the children eat ; there I get the luxuries, and 
then the eating comes so handy here, O, brethren, 
don't let us try to be big ; human bigness don't pay. 
I asked a great man. the other day, if it paid to be 
big? he said no. 

The most happy and delicious state of mind is, when 
I feel child-like and humble, so small that I can nestle 
away into some little corner, and see the world's great 
puffs strut by ; the contrast is to my advantage. 

But let the world and Satan take warning, not to 
presume too much on these little ones because they 
appear so small ; you may be disappointed when the 
great superhuman appears, for it's in them, great 
and mighty, equal to the mastery of earth and hell. 
Then, little ones don't require much room, and when 
the great dignitaries crowd in, they can be tucked 
away on the lower seats without being hurt by it, 
and even come out of their obscurity more than when 
they went in. Don't be anxious about position and 
circumstances, if the immortal greatness is in you ; no 
man can take it out of you. Don't be troubled though 
they call you weak-minded — a simpleton, or fool — you 
have eternity to contradict them in ; you can afford 
to wait, you shall have the argument at last. Work 
and wait for coronation day to settle the claims to 
good sense and wisdom. For one, I can say that this 
deep, sublime, eternal life begun in my soul, will more 
than compensate for being called a fool to the day of 
my death. — Northern Independent. 
5 



56 ROUND LAKE. 



EOUID LAKE. 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 



Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, 
and purify unto himself a peculiar people. — Titus, 2: 14. 

Although this sermon was prepared before a national 
meeting had been appointed, it has not been preached. 
It is presented in this connection as the one selected 
for the Round Lake meeting, though not used on that 
occasion. 

As time will not admit of preliminaries, I come 
directly to the great theme of my text, which is, the 
redemption of the human race by Jesus Christ. 
Redemption always presupposes forfeiture, and, in 
most instances, it includes another idea, viz.: Liability 
to seizure. 

As the value of a remedy is mostly determined by 
the nature of the disease which it has cured, so the 
importance of redemption dates back through the 
history of sin. Hence the importance of a clear view 
of the deep and wide-spread ruin which called the 
Son of God to this world. 

Redemption can never be understood apart from 
the ruin of sin ; they must go together, not only in 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 57 

our estimate of Christ, but in our repentance and 
faith, our prayers and holiness. And when on Zion 
we staud, with the hundred and forty and four thou- 
sand, we shall find they go together there. Ruin and 
restoration — lost, but saved — dead, but alive, are the 
fundamentals of the eternal song. Yes, it is there, 
as well as here : Unto him who hath washed us from 
our szns in his own blood. 

The history of sin is the first number in the arith- 
metic of redemption. The fullest view of the atone- 
ment, on the negative side, is taken from the stand- 
point of Adam's fall, looking through four thousand 
j T ears of night, to the Cross ! This includes Sinai's 
awful thunderiug mount in the range, and whoever 
expects to reach Calvary, except by the way of Sinai, 
will never see or feel the life-giving glory of the 
Cross. For the mission of our schoolmaster, the law, 
in bringing us to Christ, has not run out, smart and 
aimiable though we may be. 

I pity the weakness of him who thinks to dress 
over the offense of the Cross to a proud world, by the 
blandishments of human pity and sympathy, as if 
wickedness could be won over to Christ by the power 
of human instinct. The motive is too weak against 
the offense. The charms of the Cross can only be 
seen by despairing eyes. 

Put less dependence, then, on the excitement of 
human pity, from mere human suffering — make less 
of the innocent sufferer, and more of the sin-atoning 
sacrifice. Let the desolate ones in sackcloth from 



58 ROUND LAKE. 

Sinai, who are coming from the killing of the law, 
have a view of that awful dead one — dead for their 
sakes. Though forsaken of men, and pierced and 
bloody, to them he is the chief among ten thousand, 
and the one altogether lovely — lovely mostly because 
he is my Redeemer, and I am a lost sinner. No 
urging in this case to believe. One oleam of the 
two-edged sword of law, has more motive in it to 
faith in Christ, than all my coaxing or persuading. 

As an illustration : Whoever expects to understand 
the meaning of a pardon, except through the logic 
of State prison, will altogether fail of the best part 
of its meaning, viz.: Its preciousness ! These remarks, 
although along the line of the text, are too limited 
for my present purpose. 

Man, contemplated as a forfeiture, presents the 
most stupendous failure known in the Universe. 
Strong as this assertion is, it is, nevertheless, below 
the facts in the case. 

Man, as a moral failure, is not only the greatest 
that has been known, but the greatest that could 
have been, or ever can be ! This is the culmination 
of ruin ! Wickedness can never repeat itself on so 
broad a scale, for there is not enough space left 
uncured in the moral Universe — not enough un- 
wrecked empire for another strike so broad as this. 
Satan has done his utmost in heaven and earth both. 
Hell's great desperate possible has been reached, 
while heaven's easy probable went beyond it. So 
that we are to recollect that Christ's power to save 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 59 

reaches down to the extreme depths of ruin — over- 
lapping sin's utmost possibilities. For it is not enough 
for Christ to measure his light just square up to the 
limits of dark, but he lets the glory of redemption 
flood over beyond sin's utmost power. As much as 
to say, I not only conquer, but more than conquer. 
I will outdo the abounding of sin at every point — 
belting its dark empire with the provisions of 
abounding grace. 

The assertion, that this is the greatest failure that 
ever can be, which I expect will be called extrava- 
gant, rests on this fact : That man, with what apper- 
tains to man, of his two-fold nature, and complicated 
existence, or, rather, two existences flowing abreast, 
requiring the outfit of two whole systems to keep 
him going, involves the chief importance of worlds. 
Hear it, my friends, this man interest has no rival ! 
This is Jehovah's climax. 

Could you anatomize this great human interest 
from creatures — things, beings, and worlds, you 
w r ould not only leave creation running to no account, 
and angels with wings made for nothing, but Jesus 
Christ would stand bereft of meaning or mission, 
with more than half his sacred titles made eternally 
obsolete. For the Son of God, in a sense, w r as made 
over, to meet this startling emergency which had 
changed the relations of three worlds in one day, 
and took upon himself new titles expressive of this 
new attitude. 

In the forfeiture of man, then, is found the wreck 



60 EOtTND LAKE. 

of the most magnificent and sublime interest known 
in the history of eternity. The like never was before, 
and never can be again, short of another Universe. 

It is true, that was a dark clay when angels failed 
to keep their first estate — when worshipers next the 
throne turned their back on Him w r ho sat thereon — 
and there, amid crowns and dominions, to rebel. To 
rebel before the throne, in beatific light and glory, 
was, perhaps, more damning in its nature, than the 
Adam rebellion. It was a crime, not only dark and 
wicked, but it seems to be a monstrous act. Its effect 
was sudden and incurable, demonizing every actor 
in the scene; calling out a curse so withering, that 
every dark apostate went backward under Jehovah's 
frown, from highest high to lowest depths, as b\ r one 
fall. Perhaps this moral crash was more total and 
remediless than the Adam fall. 

But who and what are angels, fallen or unfallen, 
when compared to man ? An angel is a simple, 
indivisible spirit, produced, as far as we know, in 
the most simple manner — the product of the Almighty 
fiat, unattended with ceremony, process, or outlay. 

An angel is an isolated and separate production, 
standing solitary and alone from all others, having 
neither ancestor nor descent — representative of no 
tribe, offspring of no race ; if blessed, blessed alone ; 
if cursed, cursed by himself. 

We suspect the number of the fallen too few r , to 
justify their redemption, and their sin too mean for 
God to touch. But when we come to man, moment- 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 61 

ous, complicated man, we strike another subject — 
he whose original production was prefaced with an 
outlay of creative wisdom and power, requiring six: 
days of God-work in world-making to get even a* 
place ready and worthy to put this marvel of the 
Universe in. It is not known, down here, that so 
much as one world has been made for angels ; per- 
haps no outlay was necessary for these purely spirit- 
ual and holy beings. They could home with, their 
father God. 

But something has been prepared up there 1 for the 
saints from the foundation of the world. Then, from 
what Christ said, we know that the celestial home 
has been quite lately, somehow, fitted up for the new 
comers from this wrecked empire — these saved out- 
casts, the trophies of redemption. For he knew 
they would be coming, and they are coming from 
every land — coming with songs and everlasting joy 
upon their heads. So let the everlasting gates give* 
wav for Christ's rarest glorv to come through. 

In returning to things literal, let us look out upon 
this circling procession of shining worlds, in silent, 
obedient march, around this human interest. Coming 
and going, as in the livery of waiting servants — day 
and night, coming and going, as if to inquire from 
their master, if we wanted anything. Not only these 
worlds, which come and go in thick and jostling ranks, 
through the blue vastness, were ordained for man ; 
but the myriads of organized life in air and earth and 
water, with all around — above — below, of what we 



62 ROUND LAKE. 

see, or hear, or know, were put under man as his 
servants, and he pronounced their lord. Hence when 
man, who is the importance and reason of these crea- 
tions, fell, he took with him the design of all things 
created for him, into the general wreck. 

As means and measures always derive their impor- 
tance from the objects they are ordained to subserve, 
so conversely, in the fall and perversion of man, all 
things created for him lost rank in him. Truly, vast 
was the wreck of that fatal day, when Adam man 
proved a failure ! 

But we are to recollect, that this Adam sinner was 
unlike all other sinners; he stood as the head and 
origin of a race, which should outnumber the stars 
of heaven, and the sands of the seashore. Hence the 
forfeiture of Adam not only includes the perversion 
of all things created for him, but also the progeny 
of him ; the moral taint of the father is the poison 
of the children ; a curse in Adam, is curse in the 
fountain, affecting the streams down to latest born 
of man. 

These tw r o views indicate, mostly, the vastness of 
the ruins Christ came to recover. The measure of 
redemption begins here, and can begin nowhere else ; 
hence, if we fail in our estimate of the ruin side, we 
must, of necessity, come short in our appreciation of 
redemption. And that, too, forever and ever ; for all 
along the endless years, the ransomed hosts shall 
begin their reckoning of salvation from sin-ruin. 

The second idea presupposed by redemption, relates 



REDEEMED PECLXIAR PEOPLE. 63 

to seizure. In our case, the liability had become a 
fact; the forfeiture had been seized — the penalty was 
beins: inflicted — the curse had crone out everywhere, 
into air, earth, and water; overhead and underneath, 
and all around the blight goes forth. And while the 
glorv departs — the throne getting dark to Eden, like 
an eclipse at noon, storms, for the first, go howling 
through its quiet bowers, jostling the equilibrium of 
nature everywhere. Great nature feels the shock in 

all her forms. Spasms in the earth, air and water 

thunder spasms — storm spasms — birth spasms, and 
death spasms. Everywhere travailing in pain begins ! 
Taking in the great groan of creation, which has been 
rolling on abreast with time, without one break in its 
wail, for six thousand years ! 

The mix and mingle of this literal word, to-day, is, 
curse and blessing everywhere. Briers and thorns 
shall it bring forth to thee. Wheat and tares grow 
together. Death wrestling hard with life, with cold 
foam on his armor. For we are to recollect, that 
execution was arrested in the midst of bein^ inflicted 
— stopped, as it were, with curse half gone through 
everything, leaving man, and all nature, where they 
are found to-day, partly blessed and partly cursed — 
half dead and half alive. Sigh and laugh live in the 
same heart, while sickness lurks in all the veins of life. 

Man viewed superficially, shows, that some time in 
his history, he had come near utter ruin — that he 
had, at least, felt the glance r brush of falling 
down ; while the great blow fell on our passover — 



64 ROUND LAKE. 

our turn aside, for that is what passover means ; it's 
where wrath is turned aside from man to Jesus. 

But the curse of the physical world is not the 
darkest side of this desolate state of things. The 
penalty is being inflicted on Adam in a deeper sense ; 
he already feels that mysterious change going on in 

v bJ coo 

him, changing from blessed to cursed ! Changing 

' %D O O O 

from light to dark ! Great sun-down of the morn- 
ing ! Perversion of holy existence ! Retrogression 
back from life to unknown death and unknown woe. 
He hides on the approach of his God, afraid of holi- 
ness. For the curse is coming over him, and coming 
into him ; coming in double night and double death. 

This is funeral day ! I imagine angels, with droop- 
ing wings, stand like stocks before the throne — stand 
with bowed heads and silent harps, for the hush is 
on hosannah and anthem — watchers in the gates of 
Paradise, which stand ajar, wait for the knell of 
Eden — every thing that moves, moves in muflled 
stillness — breath, itself, seems suppressed. * * * 
When it is whispered from world to world. * * * 
Adam man is dying ! Another moral failure is com- 
ing into the Universe ! 

Here is the being, who, but yesterday, stood as the 
hope of ages — the theme of angelic talk, and angelic 
song — the favorite of God — the reason of worlds — 
representative of the greatest and dearest interest of 
eternity ! But all is lost to-day ; the human race is 
a failure ; while the worlds go trundling on their 
course without an errand. 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 65 

What a sublime mockery faces Infinite Creator 
to-dav, which, but yesterday, was running on the 
sublimest mission to which matter was ever sent ! 

This is the blackness and darkness — this the great 
emergency — the astonishment and despair! Yea, 
more, this the silence and dumbness of the Universe, 
when the news ran and rang, from throne to throne, 
from world to world, I've found a ransom ! 

The tide of life was reversed in its deepest ebb, 
and sent rolling backward to the half-cold corpse of 
the world ! A new day dawned on the darkest night 
of all the ages ! The bier was touched in the open 
sepulchre, when deaths long procession, through 
generations vast, stood still ! — life breathed again, 
and the pall of death lifted from the funeral of the 
world! The effects reached heaven also. New titles 
were added to the Trinity, and heaven chorused with 
the loftiest theme of eternity ! 

Yes, salvation, through the blood of the Lamb, 
henceforth shall stand as the grand anniversary 
anthem, the old hundred of time and eternity! 

That was a momentous juncture, when Christ 
espoused by promise, the cause of man, and turned 
the storm aside. For he came through thick dark- 
ness and ruin, holding back uplifted thunder. He 
rescued the lost from hell's dark brow, adjourning 
the mighty storm of wrath, and curse, and death, and 
damn, over to Calvary's Cross I Rescission of death — 
great ebb in the tide of woe — postponement of wrath 
and retribution ! And it was done ! Yes, the great 



66 BOUND LAKE. 

transaction's done! Intolerable gloom rolls back 
from the moral heavens, and the brightest sunrise of 
eternity begins ! 

At length, in the fullness of time, when the period 
of types and shadows had run out, and bleeding 
birds and bleeding beasts were no longer accepted of 
God, and redemption could no longer be carried on, 
on the promissory principle, Christ actually appeared 
in a human body, as the world's accepted sacrifice. 
Adopting the debt, which had been running to his 
account through the long, increasing generations, he 
stood forth the lone victim of that storm which had 
hung facing the Universe, dark and big, with hoarded 
wrath, for four thousand years, clamoring for blood. 
A storm so intensified on Calvary and crucifixion, as 
to shut out the lights of two worlds at once. Here 
in the gloom of double night, our Saviour died, the 
just for the unjust, that he might redeem us from all 
iniquity. 

And now, after this feeble view of the necessity 
and vastness of redemption, I come to consider the 
actual and personal effects of redemption. Its bene- 
fits, tfi the full extent, will not be realized till after 
the resurrection, when the body, though long wait- 
ing, shall come forth to immortality by redemption. 
What does Christ propose to save us from ? That 's 
our question and our interest. The text says, from 
all iniquity. On this point, possibly, I shall part 
with some of my hearers ; for with many, religion is 
becoming alarmingly superficial. Zion is demoralized 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 67 

with a godless morality — ceremonies gone through 
with as a soulless performance. 

Then, on the other hand, for our encouragement, 
there are more who are believing in, and praying for, 
and attaining to, Bible salvation, than ever before. 
In our Church, at least, I consider these extremes to 
be widening. The mistake of thousands lies in their 
erroneous estimate of sin ; they give it mostly an 
external existence. Hence, if they keep sin out of 
their hands and feet, eyes, ears, and tongue, they 
call themselves saved. 

The religion most in vogue now, is body religion, 
and it's a great burden on flesh and blood to carry it 
out only iii part. For the religious services per- 
formed by the body are in opposition to the inner 
soul, the heart holding no commerce with the outside 
man in its performance. And if the intellect, custom, 
or fashion, reasons the body into certain ceremonies, 
the inward derision turns the performance into a 
blushing farce. It's a hard religion for the counte- 
nance. Many get shamed out of it altogether, which 
shows good sense as well as conscience. 

My dear friends, the members of your body are 
incapable of sin, or religion, either ; they are only 
the instruments of unrighteousness, but not the un- 
righteousness. A tongue, for instance, never yet 
made a lie. The most it does in that line, is to 
mimic a lying soul ; lies are soul-born. Hence the 
great physician for the cure of sin, does not begin 
with doctoring fingers. His philosophy for keeping 



68 ROUND LAKE. 

us from sin-practice, is in the hate and loathing of 
sin. It's how much sin-hate have you, and not how 
much watching do you practice. To be redeemed 
from all iniquity means the root more than the 
branches ; the fountain more than the streams — the 
heart more than the life, as cause governs effects. To 
be redeemed from all iniquity, means not only all of 
a class, such as vulgar sins, but all kinds and degrees, 
so that we shall not be compelled to sin from sin's 
desire, or from sin's necessity. 

The apology, "I can't help it," is provided for in 
the atonement. Praise the Lord for the wondrous 
grace. And where it is not provided for, it is not 
sinful to sin ; that is necessitated sin, is not imputed 
sin. But w T e can be placed where we can help it 
(that is, imputed sin). The cannot in sin, with the 
can of holiness, comes from the mighty to save. 
These impossibilities with men, go as probabilities 
with God. 

Satan, being the personification of the iniquity of 
the Universe, knows its location. He is not so par- 
ticular that a sinner sins outwardly as far as his 
individual ruin is concerned, though the practice of 
sin increases its power and perverts others. For he 
knows murder may exist where no life is taken. He 
is more interested in the instigation of inward murder ; 
then he is safe on his victim, whether hands are 
bloody or not. If Satan can tempt a child of the 
kingdom into secret acquiescence in wrong, and win 
a smile of approbation to iniquity, though it were 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 69 

through the outer court of its inclosure, he knows he 
has damned a soul, though no outward sin is com- 
mitted. 

In what consisted the turpitude of Adam's sin? 
We all say the outward act was a trifle. The crime 
was not so much in the outward act of eating the 
forbidden fruit ; that was the test, the visible sign of 
what was going on within. The heinousness of his 
offense was perpetrated deep within the veil of soul, 
where, in secret silence, he rejected the words of the 
Most High, and went into dark accord with Satan ; 
esteeming his sophistry more honest than the words 
of his God. 

Yes, Satan, once Son of the Morning, who could 
speak the shibboleths of heaven, and understood the 
secrets of the throne. Now, Satan, that dark, doomed 
renegade from the skies ! That head and front of 
God-hate ! That wolf of the first evening ! That 
beast of soul-prey ! That hydrophobia of mad ; 
gnashing his teeth at the throne — drooling blasphe- 
mies from his snarl ! This is the apostate with 
whom Adam has gone into fellowship. He is taking 
his breath, and imbibing his hate ! The sin was 
enough to curse a world. 

Secret fellowship with wrong — a sly looking and 
longing after forbidden pleasure — this is iniquity. 
This drinking of the cup of devils, then of the cup 
of the Lord. This attempted concord between 
Christ and beliel, through their representatives, 
where in Christless conclave, the haters of Jesus and 



70 ROUND LAKE. 

ministers of the gospel exchange breath and fellow- 
ship. The nature that can enjoy wrong, either in its 
spirit or practice, is the sin nature ; the spiritual 
adultery so much condemned in the Bible. It is 
soul fornication which God hates. The danger of 
the times is not so much from immoralities of life, 
as from soul fornication. This attempt to league 
Christ's kingdom with the carnal world, is corrupting 
the Church everywhere. 

The second particular in actual redemption relates 
to purity. "And purify unto himself, 77 etc. Persons 
or property, practically redeemed, are supposed to 
come into the hands of the redeemer. 

In the kingdom of Christ, a soul redeemed from 
all iniquity is brought under the dominion of grace, 
for the purpose, first, of being made into a perfect 
Christian ; for no Christian character is finished short 
of sanctification ; all the work of grace, through all 
the progressive degrees this side of purity, is with 
reference to this crowning perfection. Sanctification 
has reference, mostly, to God as a holy being. "And 
purify unto himself/ 7 etc. While justification has 
reference mostly to sin. Although a soul is con- 
verted and accepted of God, the old aptitudes and 
habits of the carnal nature remaiu in him still — the 
long actings of sin have grooved the whole man for 
sin-practice. Although sin has not dominion over 
him that he must fulfill the lusts thereof, yet the 
motions of, sin, at times, appear in these old habits, 
to the grief of the soul, though innocent. 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE, 71 

It is said that dead persons can be galvanized so 
as to stir, but when they do make a motion, it's 
always an old life act, such as the nerves and muscles 
were used to. So Christ proposes to crucify the 
man of sin in us, and so purify the heart, the seat of 
moral action, that when the shocks of temptation 
and the persecutions of the world shall fall upon his 
redeemed ones, they shall fail to bring forth a legiti- 
mate old life act. At most, it shall be only a nervous 
excitement from without, in seasons of debility or 
sickness. For the habits of the body, and especially 
the nervous system, in some cases, are a long time in 
forgetting the old ways of the fallen nature. 

Some who had been addicted to profane language 
for years, after being saved, used bad words involun- 
tarily. They have informed me, that their tongues 
spoke them from habit, without being told to do so. 
Young Christians will find some lessons to be learned 
here, lest they cast away their confidence. 

An old friend of mine had a cancer drawn or cut 
out of his flesh, with success, as was supposed, as the 
wound had healed ; yet long after the surface healing, 
he felt the old cancerous twinges deep in him, with 
no way of reaching them. Mark this striking figure* 
This man had not felt these root motions while the 
sore pained him, but when that was healed and the 
flesh had grown up, he felt the fiery prongs rankling 
in him, which nothing but death could cure. But O, 
believer, take courage ! It appertains to the office of 
the Holy Ghost, to ransack thy being as with blighted 



72 ROUND LAKE, 

candle for these cancerous roots, taking sin's last 
motion and twinge out of thy soul. 

Do my hearers enquire, why God does not sanctify 
a soul when he pardons his sins? For the same 
reason that he does not pardon a sinner when he 
convicts him. Because, if it could be done, we 
could never realize the depths of that depravity 
from which we had been saved. 

Suppose the doctor, in curing that surface sore, 
could have killed the cancer roots at the same time, 
how much credit it would have been to him ? That 
man's gratitude would be governed by the sore, and 
that only, for that is all the experience he has had of 
cancer ; he is left ignorant of the terribleness of the 
thing, after all. So the history of believers all 
along shows, that the pardon of sin is the smallest 
degree in this w 7 ondrous salvation, great as it is. 
The critical w^ork for God and man both, relate to 
the roots. 

An experience of sin-pollution is not only essential 
to repentance and faith, but to a just appreciation of 
redemption. Yea, more ; essential to the fuller enjoy- 
ment of Christ and his salvation, and that, forever. 
We presume the highest strains known in the immor- 
tal songs, are reached from the starting point of sin- 
ruin. For that hosannah, which takes its rise in the 
low cadence of w T hat Ave once were, with recollected 
pains of hell, is bound to go over the highest tabors 
of eternity in its climax. While angels revolve in 
the smaller rounds of one experience, the redeemed 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 73 

ones are thrilled and excited by the wondrous con- 
trasts from what they once were, all along up to 
what Jesus is. For redemption takes in the mighty 
range from the gates of hell, all along up to the 
mansions of glory, touching both extremes as by one 
strain and one emotion. 

Do my hearers suspecct me of wandering from my 
subject? I am on the line of the text. Am trying 
to show the necessity, not so much of purity directly, 
as of an experience of impurity, as one reason why 
God does not sanctify when he converts; that we 
never could know, except from hearsay, what sancti- 
fication means. 

Take another illustration : The young child is 
stolen by the Indians ; in their manners it grows up 
to manhood, so as to become like them ; at length 
the father redeems him, and brings him back to his 
long forgotten home ; he puts on the citizen's dress 
and manners ; is happy in his deliverance, and con- 
tented at father's house, and notwithstanding he 
hates the Indians for robbing him of so much exist- 
ence. Yet, the wilderness wildness stays in his look ; 
the instincts of barbarism linger in the muscles of 
his face, and manner of his walk, and when affronted, 
the savage flash appears in his eye, and the old 
Indian whoop comes out. This I have witnessed. 
Now, although he is redeemed from all the power of 
the Indians, and from a desire to return to their life, 
still he is not purified ; he is not fully restored to 
the likeness of the family. But the purification of 



74 ROUND LAKE. 

Christ's atonement proposes, not only to take off the 
old captivity dress and robe us in the apparel of the 
father's family, but to break up the old habits and 
motions within, taking sin's last relic from soul and 
muscle, whoop and all — presenting us unto the 
Father without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. 

Third, and lastly. — The position and peculiarities 
of the redeemed and purified. The saints are to be 
admitted to the rank of the people of God. A people 
prepared by himself, and for himself — wrought up to 
the similitude of the holy ; first, as laborers together 
w 7 ith him in the redemption of the world, and, second, 
to constitute, perhaps, the chief society of the Infinite, 
when clay and time shall be no more. 

It seems too great a thought for mortals, that He, 
who is infinitely holy, is to sit down on his throne to 
be sung to, and eternally delight in the society of 
those who were once sinners. 

With respect to the peculiarities of this people, we 
have time for but little. I expect to mention three 
generic, or general traits from which the thousand 
peculiarities spring. 

First. — The people of God are twice born : First, 
of the flesh, which is flesh ; second, of the spirit, 
which is spirit ; the second birth is not contrary to 
the first, though it takes precedence, and claims 
control. 

Second. — This, of course, makes a necessity for two 
lives, which constitutes the second mystery of the 
being. Two lives contrived in one. Man is most 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 75 

marvelously endowed with receptive capacities: he 
is taken up on all sides with doors of inlet, like New 
Jerusalem city, at least three gates on all the four 
sides. Or like a city on the plain, with all the roads 
running into it. 

80 man — the saint-man, is a center, to which the 
growings are so set. both of the visible and invisible 
worlds, as to run their freights of good into him to 
unload. And sometimes the blessings and glory of 
two worlds seem to come in abreast. Two lives 
in one ! Regaling mortality in the pleasures and 
comforts of earth, while the soul sits at the banquet 
of angels. Eating at two tables at once, supplied 
with the luxuries of both worlds. For everything 
that moves is on mission to man. Should anything, 
or being, come all the way to curse one of God's 
elect, he should be made to forget his errand, or 
ignoiantly do another, at least so that it should be 
said, all things work together for good to them at 
love God. 

Third Peculiarity. — He lives in two worlds at the 
same time. His name is on the records of two worlds. 
He is known and counted and felt in two worlds. His 
body may be busied with the things of this life while 
his soul is holding intercourse with the heavenly world. 

Well has it been said of man, that he is wonderfully 
made. Endowed with diversified senses, susceptibili- 
ties, aspirations and passions, an assemblage of varie- 
ties, contrarieties, dissimilarities, disproportions, 
contradictions, dust and spirit, soul and body, and 



76 BOUND LAKE. 

yet so smoothly joined that no one can tell where 
soul begins. 

In balancing this double-natured being between his 
two appropriate worlds, it would seem to be a nice 
point so to adjust and proportion him that he should 
not gravitate to one so as to carry him altogether out 
of the other, but hold him so happily counterpoised 
between the two that he should be blest with the 
good of both at the same time. Hence the Christian 
lives on a very broad scale ; and, notwithstanding the 
two natures are so sympathetically mixed, either can 
exist alone, but it is always at the expense of the other 
life. When life then in man is but one, know by this 
that the mate is dead. 

Look at the one-life persons all about us. Though 
capable of a broad and sublime existence, yet nar- 
rowed down to comfortable flesh and bones — a healthy, 
happy body- — but a walking tomb in which a dead 
soul is buried. 

We have a type of this two-life mysteiy in the 
natural world. A fish has been discovered of late 
having two sets of eyes. The upper set are made 
for air, while the lower ones can see in water. Here 
is a creature having two natures made for two ele- 
ments, or two modes of existence — fins to row with, 
and little fans for sails. But the curiosity of the 
creature is, that he cannot take the whole of himself 
into either one of his two elements. If he sinks too 
low into water, one-half of him is drowned ; then, if 
he rises too high, his water nature would be killed by 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 77 

the excessive oxygen of the air, or, in other words, 
half of him would die of over life. It would seem 
to require rather close navigation to run this creature 
through safely with perils so near. 

This is the best illustration of life nrvstery in man 
that I know of. So of the Christian ; if he sinks toa 
deep into earth's pleasures and interests his celestial 
life will be suffocated from earthliness, and if he rises 
too high into the spiritual, his body life will be killed 
vith excessive glory. Paul came so near it on one 
cccasion, as to be in doubt whether he was in the body 
cr out of the body. 

Mystery ! mystery ! Living in two worlds at once ! 
That being in heaven above or on the earth beneath, 
vho could survive the bereavement of half himself? 
But here is the peculiarity of the universe — here is a 
being who can look on and see one full life and one 
whole world taken from him in a day, without essen- 
tial loss or a tear — here is a being so amply endowed 
that he can abandon one-half himself to corruption 
and dust with such advantage to his other self, as to 
make it an eternal gain to die. 

Glory to the Redeemer forever ! He has triumphed 
over death gloriously, by putting the Christian where 
death can neither scare him nor despoil him. Ingulf 
all his hopes this side of the stars — cut him off here 
from shore to shore, then he has one great, full, 
glorious world left, whose gates are opening to admit 
him through. 

Christ has so far abolished death to saints that it 



78 ROUND LAKE. 

means sleep, in the rendering of redemption, in the 
language of triumph. He has so redeemed his people 
from the power of death, that master and servant are 
made to change places in the dying hour, when the 
king of terrors is required to hold the pale horse, as 
by the bit, till a conqueror is ready; in some instances, 
postponing death for an hour, and even a day, as has 
been witnessed, till the last message is delivered, the 
farewells given and the feet gathered up. Now uncage 
me — loose the silver cord — untie the knot that binds 
soul to dust — now divide me off for the grave and for 
glory — dust to dust, and spirt home to God. 

In Scotland there is a remarkable tree, which about 
thirty years ago was blown over, spanning a deep gully 
or ravine. But the curiosity is, that the branches have 
taken root on the opposite bank, where fifteen trees 
have grown up, some thirty feet high. Now, the storm 
that seemed so proud in prostrating that tree was the 
making of it. Suppose you cut that tree in two over 
the gully and burn up the trunk and stump roots, 
what w uld the branches care for that? They have 
transferred sap enough from the other side to make 
r.oots of their own. So with many, present with 
myself, are more than half blown over ; but, thank 
the Lord, we have struck the other bank. Suppose 
death should unroot us from this native shore ? We 
are not plucked up at that ; the chief growing is 
carried on the other side of the gully, quite beyond 
the sweep of death's scythe, where the foliage is ever 
green, independent of the original stump. 



REDEEMED PECULIAR PEOPLE. 79 

Yes, brethren, I feel it more and more, that the 
kingdoms are but one ; the colonies and mother 
country are not far apart; the two shores seem nearer 
and nearer, and at times the saints run out on a kind 
of celestial isthmus — so near the holy mountains, the 
verdant hills of heaven, as to smell the cinnamon 
groves and taste myrrh from the native lebanons ; 
and but for the dying and the dead, the wretched and 
the lost, might say : Loose the cable and let us go — 
open the cage and let us out. At best, my time is 
short here — soon shall hear fingers on the latch, the 
tabernacle door w r ill open, and / myself shall vacate 
mortality. Yes, by the grace of God, the first sweep 
of my wings shall cany me clear of sorrow and cor- 
ruption — like a winged thought I'll scud away from 
the land of sun-down into God's eternal noon. 

Praise the Great Redeemer ; we are running into 
the celestial boundaries ! Living in two worlds at 
the same time ! Of many present it may be said : 
More than half of them have crossed the lines 
already — they live more on the celestial side than on 
this — from dark terrestrial into high celestial rising. 

Yes, brethren, these days of the right hand of the 
Lord are taking us over the lines. Glory to God ; 
we are crossing the lines ! Crossing the lines ! 



80 ROUND LAKE. 

TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 
Christian Power. * 

[Remarks of the Rev. B. Pomeroy at the Round Lake National Camp 
Meeting, as reported by Dr. M., of New York, and revised by himself,] 

After an excellent sermon by Brother Gray, of 
Philadelphia, on Purity of Heart, Brother Pomeroy 
spoke substantially as follows : 

I am in a strait — don't know what to do. If I sit 
still, it is worse ; and if I speak, it's worse, as there is 
not time to say all I wish. The minister has called 
our attention to purity. I wish to speak somewhat 
of power, as these two are intimately related, and 
constitute the essentials of holiness. I attended a 
few meetings for holiness in a certain city, not long 
since, where I observed something new in the experi- 
ence of this grace. A number of persons rose in 
those meetings, requesting prayers that they might 
be endued with power; their consecration was full, 
and they believed themselves in the holy state, but 
they had little or no power. Now, this religious 
power is very desirable, for it so energizes the whole 
man, soul, intellect, and body, even, as to make a 
mortal tenfold himself. 

But mark this : Whoever is under the teaching of 
the Holy Ghost is a definite sort of a person, and is 
required to live a definite life, and instead of feeling 
about in uncertainty to find where he is, is definite 
in his views and convictions. The Word and Spirit 

♦From The Living Epistle. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 81 

not only agree in being quick and powerful, but 
sharp — hear it — sharp — piercing, discerning ; here is 
one of the signs of this purity and power. 

Whoever is under the inspiration of the Holy 
Ghost, will be marked with a definiteness and steadi- 
ness of aim, and, at times, w T ill pierce, and cut, and 
cleave, and anatomize w T ith a daring and precision 
that's awful. Is this the power you want? or is it 
power to present only things lovely and of good 
report ? 

Again, what is it? Well, it is not power to talk 
loud as I do. It don't mean the high swells so much, 
nor even a gifted tongue, though this shall be touched 
as w T ith living coals. But it's power to sit right 
down there on a low bench, w 7 hen required to, and 
grow tall and mighty by sitting; for if the immortal 
greatness is in you, no man can take it out of you. 
True greatness is in no hurry to be seen, and can 
survive a low bench. It is power when called a fool 
by your neighbors, with others in doubt but that it 
may be true, to stand calm and serene in the recol- 
lection that you have eternity to contradict them in, 
and can afford to wait for the argument. Moral power 
is not a superadded quality of holiness — a separate 
gift tacked on to that state, which may be lost off ; it 
belongs to purity and can never be taken out of it. 
If you have holiness, you have religious power just 
as you need. And there are men and women here 
to-day, girded in God's own armor, who ask leave of 
nothing this side of the stars if they may triumph 



82 ROUND LAKE. 

over all things and do all things through Christ who 
strengtheneth them. Their moral power and holy 
grandeur are enough to charm angels. They are here 
on God's account, and if they break down in this 
cause, it is at the expense of another ; they are safe, 
for they keep themselves where God is responsible 
both for them and their w r ork. Now what is the 
philosophy of this power ? It lies in that faith which 
is of the operation of the Holy Ghost. We are 
strong, as religious beings, just in proportion to our 
faith. But the question arises, What is strong faith ? 
It is not a faith so great in the scope of its actings, as 
in in its forlornness and desperation. It is unmixed 
faith ; in opposition to some believing, some reason- 
ing, and the rest human probabilities. Faith, as a 
grain of mustard seed is strong, if it is faith only ; 
this supplementing faith with outward signs vitiates 
w T hat faith we have. This reassuring the immutable 
promise, by sights and dreams, by hopeful appear- 
ances and human probabilities, is like requiring the 
Almighty to give bail for his character. 

Real faith makes the Infinite master of our impossi- 
bilities. Some of our teachers seem to think that 
faith may be coaxed and caressed along to victory, if 
one only knows how to do it. I tell you, friends, 
there is more motive to faith in one gleam of the two- 
edged sword than is found in all my persuading. 

Bring on a necessity for God's help ! Dash into the 
bruised reeds — make every human prop reel before 
the emergency — bereave the soul of home help and 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 83 

home hope, reduced to a spiritual foundling on the 
door-steps of the kingdom, too starved to knock, and 
faith will go to Christ as by moonlight, and go alone 
too. Go to the wreck if you would see the life-boat 
shooting: over the swells. God don't touch a soul till 
it founders. The chief doubt of human salvation, 
everywhere, lies in the deceit-fulness and mockery of 
home remedies ; all of which must be abandoned in 
despair, before Christ, the great Alternative, is 
accepted ; for no one trusts his all on the credit of 
the poor man's Saviour with two hopes on hand. 
Hence it requires more faith to disbelieve in ourselves 
than it does to believe in God. Looking to God 
conies natural to despairing eyes. Who dare sink, 
taking all his props with him, at the bidding of Jesus 
Christ ? That is faith ! God can lift us up on our 
sinking faith, for the conditions of our exaltation are 
met in our going down. 

The train came in this morning with thirteen or 
fourteen cars of mortal cargo. Observe this, the 
last car of that long train moved w r ith the same 
force and power as the first. Where did the power 
come from? It is not contained in the car. It came 
through the coupling, and that through another, and 
another, till the last car was coupled to the awful 
power of steam. 

So in the spiritual world, faith is that instrument 
which couples weakness with power, linking a mortal 
to the All-sufficiency. Just here estimate your relig- 
ious power — what is the strength of your faith-grasp 



84 ROUND LAKE. 

of the immutable God. I do not ask how high your 
ecstasies rise or how clear your vision of heaven may 
be, but when heart and flesh are failing, or the soul 
is in heaviness through manifold temptations, is your 
hold steady? 

It seems this secret has long been suspected, hence, 
the policy of earth and hell all along to rend this tie 
that binds a saint to the Upper Throne. 

Take another illustration. There is a dwarfish 
cripple of a woman, never known to walk alone; but 
when she locks her arm into the arm of her husband, 
she trips along as fast as other women. But the 
curiosity is, that she has walked in this way so long 
that her arm is set to this shape — this taking hold 
shape — she has carried a crook in her arm fifteen 
years. 

Do you call this a deformity ? It is true, it pre- 
supposes helplessness, but it is the power of her 
body, and while the crook holds good she is bound to 
go through the world. So faith is made to take hold 
of outside help; it is true, it presupposes great weak- 
ness, but it is made to deal with great power. All 
the old saints and martyrs, from Abel down, were 
marked with this crook in their arms. This mark 
has stood for ages with anti-christ as the sign of God 
and triumph, and when he sees this crook forming, he 
knows another champion for truth is to go to the 
front, making trouble through his camp. 

What I mean by this figure is, the attitude and 
habit of a saint in resting on his God. If you could 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 85 

see the soul of a matureTJhristian, you would find him 
always leaning on something out of himself; the 
degree of the lean is the measure of his power. 

I must stop, and that too, with but little relief to 
the burden of my mind. It is only of late years that 
I have had the courage to ask the privilege of speak- 
ing before ministers. Having been brought up in 
Massachusetts, where boys are taught not to crowd 
themselves into company, I have considered it all 
along as a violation of good manners for one to speak 
in such a place as this without being invited, and am 
half inclined to that opinion still ; but the Lord's 
purposes do not always run along with the etiquette 
of mortals. 

OUTGUSHINGS OF A FULL HEART. 

The following rich utterances were made by the 
author of " Shocks from the Battery," Rev. B. Pomeroy, 
at the recent National Camp Meeting. We heartily 
commend his book to our readers. — [Ed. L. E.J 

44 The brother from Maine says he has found no 
time to speak yet, and now he must say a few words, 
for he is full, the great things are piling up in him, 
he has acres (I supposed of untalked thoughts). If 
I were to judge by my feelings, I might say I have a 
thousand years of holy campaign in me to-day." 

44 If the Lord can afford to have me, and find a 
place for me in the greatest enterprise known in any 
world, I can afford to be had and to be used, without 
quibbling over the terms, for the chief advantage 



86 ROUND LAKE. 

comes to myself, while the expense is the Lord's. If 
I fail or break down in the Lord's hands as his 
property, it's his loss and not mine — I am safe." 

" Oh I feel so safe and hid away in the sublime fact 
that another and Almighty One is responsible for my 
salvation. It's my chief concern so to be, and so to 
do, as to keep this tremendous responsibility in hands 
that are Almighty." 

11 When I came to this meeting and before. I felt 
very poor and unworthy — about worthless. Then, 
coming into the presence of so many great and good 
ones, I felt so small and bashful it seemed I could do 
nothing at all. But I had not been here long before 
I felt the staleliness of my other self coming on. It 
was while Brother Gray was preaching about the 
pure in heart seeing God, but especially through his 
weeping ; it was so easy and eloquent ; it intersected 
my heart, and made me feel so related to him. It's 
the great ones who dare weep. Praise the Lord for 
strengthening me. It seemed that unseen hands were 
pressing against my weakness, holding me up erect, 
O, how unearthly one feels when Divine power touches 
his weakness." 

"It seems that I have been buckled into God's 
armor anew — a power coming round me like girding." 

" Look out for supernaturalness when you hear the 
clink of holy armor," 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 87 

ONENESS OF BELIEVERS. 

Rev. B. Pomeroy. — The following testimony, given 
at the late National Camp Meeting, was sent to us by 
Brother G. M.— [Ed. E. C] 

I feel grand that Old Methodism can get up the 
biggest meeting ever held on this continent. I glory 
in this mighty fact to-day, and did so yesterday, before 
a friend, who replied that he didn't take stock in that 
view. No doubt some would like to blur over the 
deep, radical significance of this meeting, and call it 
a National affair. It is National, for this reason mostly : 
that the desire to return to the old landmarks of 
essential Methodism is as broad as the the nation, and 
more intense than any national feeling. 

Now we don't mean to blink the great, solemn fact 
which makes this meeting what it is, viz.: The holi- 
ness of believers. I pray the Lord to make us too 
upright to be bought off from the radicalism of this 
truth, and too shrewd to be sold — as the saying is. 

We calculate to stand square on this rock — this 
immovable granite on which God builds his Church. 

This meeting represents the vitality of Method- 
ism — the power and triumph of the Fathers. I dare 
trust my eternal all. and the weal of the world, on 
this climax truth — this great Godism of the universal 
Church of Christ. The fact that this draws the most 
holy of other denominations is evidence to me that it 
is the Lord's work, and not ours. 

I heard a st: anger speaking of the Sabbath meeting 
held here before the regular meeting had commenced. 



88 BOUND LAKE. 

He said, "They have some great men and women up 
there to Round Lake. Methodists, Baptists, Presby- 
terians, and Quakers took part in the meeting yester- 
day, and they seemed all alike." 

This being one in Christ Jesus, was exemplified at 
Manheim, as I never saw it before. And here we are 
again — Parthians, Medes, Cretes and Arabians, with 
the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea. 

But we are at the blending degree, w T here we are 
neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, 
but all one in Christ Jesus. The power of this Christ 
Jesus oneness is stronger than outside diversities — it 
swallows up great and small distinctions in the deep 
of divine harmonies. 

We may be a thousand in many respects, but in 
Christ Jesus we are one. 

Holiness makes us twins at all essential points of 
soul and religion. If theorizing fails to briug us 
together, holy emotion is sure to mix us. 

It is marvelous how members of different denomina- 
tions, w r hen sanctified, agree — for instance, on what is 
sin, then on the marks of the holy state. 

I glory in this, that I have so outgrown the sect — 
not that I am less a Methodist. No, I am more and 
more so in belief and practice — too much so to be 
popular with our worldly churches. 

But my love for the pure souls the Lord calls his 
own has become so ardent that I am lapping over the 
sect lines into God's universal church. 

O, how broad I feel ! — feel broader than I do high. 



talks and testimonies. 89 

On the Mountain Top. 

The following passages will be recognized as belong- 
ing to the author of ''Shocks from the Battery," Rev. 
B. Pomeroy. A hearer has noted them literally, and 
contributes them for our columns. — [Ed. M. H. I.] 

"It seems to me that the sun is ordained, and I 
almost see the morning star of the grandest and the 
broadest spiritual day ever known outside of heaven. 
Yea, the dawning already begins. 

"This is one of the kingdom slopes — the New 
Testament tabors, where the children go up to sun 
themselves in the unveiled face. I hear from this 
mount of God the rustling of white robes. 

"O, I am glad I was not born before — could afford 
to stay out of heaven for such a time as this ! " 

At another time his remarks w^ere as follows : "The 
fact that I am endowed with eternity is too over- 
whelming at times to contemplate ; but I am relieved 
b} 7 this precious truth, that b}% and in Christ Jesus, 
I am exalted to an existence so sublime and satisfac- 
tory, with this advantage, that its narrowest point 
and smallest degree is w T here it begins. For the life 
of God in man has no second childhood — no declining 
period, but manhood in endless progression ; this is 
existence worthy of God, and equal to man. 

"It seems I am unlike some of my brethren, who 
say they don't know where to begin God's praise ; 
my trouble lies over the other side ; I don't know 
where to stop, for the Divine Being is gaining upon 
me constantly — have no time to go back and mend 



90 ROUND LAKE. 

the beginning, for I am overwhelmed with oncoming 
goodness — am falling in arrears all the time. What 
can I do? Where is the angel in heaven, or the 
saint on earth, who can lend a helping hand to such 
un worthiness? Then I find this holy existence is 
changing its pitch (if that is proper). In mj r former 
experience, this spiritual life seemed to run along 
with pleasing circumstances more ; outside sunshine 
helped soul life, as I thought; a full moon had an 
effect on an evening meeting ; then, to make ray faith 

© © 7 * 

sure, the gifted ones must be there. But of late, this 
unseen life runs more above things seen; it is 
getting steeper and steeper, and I already see how 
the Lord can take me, myself, out of this w r orld with- 
out tearing me away, like unclinching one finger at a 
time. He can just open the cage, and attract me 
aw 7 ay, taking me over the highest terrestrial summits 
without brushing. Glory to God — feel more than 
half the other side of the lines now." 

Millenium in Sight. 

Here Rev. B Pomeroy, author of " Shocks from 
the Battery," rose, saying : 

"I don't know how much a minute is, when meas- 
ured by soul emotion. I like this meeting very much 
— I like the singing. It has been held up to the 'Old 
Hundred' cadence — good, weighty and sublime. I 
like the countenance of this Israel — I feel proud of 

these faces. I see in these a guarantee against fanati- 

© © 

cism. This is a wonderful meeting. Do we — can we 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 91 

comprehend the vast results of these days ? It seems 
I could afford to stay out of heaveu for this ! This 
meeting has rolled the world a hundred years toward 
millennium! We are coming into Isaiah's holy visions. 
I see the multitude of camels are coming — the drome- 
daries of Midian and Epha, with the flocks of Kedar, 
are coming up on God's altar, and holiness is to be 
written on the bells of the horses. This is the out- 
flow of heavenly influence — God's great kingdom 
Amazon that is to flow around the globe. Let the 
nations make way for the coming of God — my time 
is out, but I am not." 

A limit had to be set at this point, and but one or 
two permitted to speak from each State. 

Diversities of Operations. 

[Reported by Rev* L.N. Beaudry ; corrected and explained by the author.] 

As there are diversities of operations by the same 
Spirit, we need caution ourselves against setting up 
any particular experience as tbe test operation, either 
for ourselves or others. Evidently it is the work of 
the Holy Ghost, to produce poverty of spirit, as well 
as jo3 T fulness. 

Sometimes I feel poor — very poor. It is natural 
for an\ r one to feel thus when he stands in compari- 
son with his superiors. I do not attribute this to 
the Spirit. There is also a supernatural feeling of 
poverty, produced by a sense of God's holiness and 
our own unworthiness, in which, at times, we abhor 
ourselves in dust and ashes. Both these kinds of 



92 BOUND LAKE. 

poverty I am acquainted with. But at present I feel 
wonderfully well — was too happy last night to sleep 
— am in a very serene and restful state this morning — 
am where I run no risks. O, how safe ! The Lord 
takes all the risks when I obey him, and takes me 
along with them. 

Soon after coming into this meeting, I seemed to 
hear about the prophetic altars — the snapping of 
tongs for live coals. I made up my mind that hearts 
and tongues were to be touched with fire. For there 
are a company of God's tried and true ones present, 
who can be trusted with rare endowments. They are 
the holy unconquerables, who will contend for a 
triumph at this meeting or make a fuss about it. 

This meeting cannot be diverted into a pleasant 
pic-nic affair. This is a field of conflict, where the 
battles of the Lord are to be waged ; and here are 
the earnest contenders for the truth, who are used to 
warring not only against principalities and powers, 
but against pride and formalities in high places. It 
is true, they do not appear much by human calcula- 
tion, neither did the five stones and sling in ancient 
times. Their want of show, their weak demeanor 
and lowliness of spirit, is what indicates the hiding 
of God's power; they seem so hid away, and especially 
so, just before the emergencies come on — how weak, 
how small they look and feel ; but when the Spirit 
wields them, look out for the reeling Goliaths. These 
are they through whom God hurts badness and bruises 
Satan's head. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 93 

Brethren, we must have a triumph for truth and 
God at this meeting, and we shall. We see the 
triumph — not from afar ; we feel it near. I almost 
hear the jingle of armor-buckles now, as if God were* 
about to gird the elect with the panoply of heaven. 

Although I have had but little rest since May — > 
having been in nine States, and not abating my labora 
through the excessive heat of this season ; yet I seem 
to feel the battle and triumph and grandeur of 
thousaud years in me to-day. Yes ; through the 
grace of God, there is that in some of these saints 
which a thousand years could not master. What ! 
shall we talk about going to heaven now? Then, if 
the old sufferers for truth and righteousness were to 
ask us why we came there so soon, what could we 
say ? Old as I am and half worn out, it would seem 
premature to die now. 

Even this unworthy one is worth too much for this 
world to go to heaven yet. I cannot afford it, or at 
least the smallness of my future reward would hardly 
admit of closing up my labors and suffering so soon. 
The Lord cannot afford it. He has borne too long 
with me, and expended too much on me, with but 
little returns. And I feel it, perhaps more and more t 
that I have been unprofitable. The Lord seems deter- 
mined to better the case, rather than call it a failure. 
Amen I 

But let the thousand years roll on. Yes, let the 
Infinite have a long chance in his experiment with 
littleness. 



94 ROUND LAKE. 

But a little more on this diversity of operations. 
A brother at Hamilton meeting exclaimed: "I feel 
sweet, don't you, Brother Pomeroy ? " I don't know 
what that means. "No," replied a sister standing 
by, "he feels grand. " Sweet seems too small and 
tame a word to apply to great emotional, surging 
soul ; it belongs to babies and flowers. 

I have times of feeling meek and comely and smooth 
— somewhat as a rainbow looks ; but I doivt know 
anything about sweet. Let those who do, be thank- 
ful that it is not sour. At other times, I feel ashamed 
of my blunders and mistakes — ashamed even of my 
clothes, and my voice, and everything that belongs 
to me. How contemptible I seem to myself! — almost 
wish I were not so large — so tall. My body is the 
hypocrite of me — it shows altogether too much. 

My feelings remind me of that angel, standing 
before the throne, with bowed head and drooping 
wings — or rather, when with twain he covered his 
face, and with twain he covered his feet. Such a 
sense of worthlessness and inferiority ! I wish I 
could hide away under wings, or something else, to 
be out of sight. 

This experience is generally the prelude to that 
state of mind, which might be represented by that 
same angel, with all his six wings spread for a 
majestic sweep. 

How sublime — how grand ! How lifted up into a 
princely, reigning attitude of soul ! It is then that 
the moon comes under our feet as we sing. Let no 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 95 

one call this fanaticism ; for it is the experience of 
olden times ; it is that which used to mount up on 
wings as eagles'. 

But generally, when the Holy One breathes on me, 
it imparts a kind of fire — I feel all astir — feel full of 
lightning, as it were. It sets me moving. There 
comes into me a spirit of daring aggressiveness, as if 
authorized to command the powers of hell to stand 
back for conquering Messiah to come through. This 
is the spirit which plants the standard in regions 
beyond — putting down the stakes, and drawing the 
kingdom lines farther out into the world of death 
and darkness. Brethren, this is the same thing which 
made- one think he could leap over a wall and run 
through a troop — which once exclaimed, ''through 
God I can do valiantly." This is one of the blessings 
which avails for the good of a lost world. 

O, that we could learn more and more to retain and 
prize that blessing which brings w r ith it the spirit of 
holy work and holy suffering, by which, with pleasure, 
we forego present ease and rest and self aggrandize- 
ment, in behalf of the everlasting welfare of others. 

We can wait a little for our rest and final triumph. 
A shout may be postponed, but brands on fire must 
be quenched quick. 

O, ye professed followers of the Lamb, w T ho are so 
tempted to choose your good things in this life — who 
spend so much money for show and aristocracy — who 
are giving your life for things which perish with the 
using : do come forth with your money and all, and 



96 ROUND LAKE. 

by divine aid make a strike that shall tell on the com- 
ing ages. Do not let this great opportunity of pro- 
bation slip, and leave you at last only as the flower 
of the field, and as the grass that withereth. 

Your opportunities and days are few ; the work of 
eternity is crowded into an inch of time — a moment's 
space ! 

And ye faithful workers together with God, work 
on ! by labors, sacrifices and sufferings, if need be ; 
so holy — so Jesus-like— make yourselves worthy of 
the brotherhood of martyrs, putting immortality into 
your debt. Go out of this world so empty-handed — 
so worn and wasted for a lost world — as shall settle 
your right to glorification beforehand. 

Or, if this is too much to hope for, at least post- 
pone your heaven of ease, of rest and grand parade, 
till coronation-day; when the final " Come, ye blessed," 
shall settle your princely pedigree, and put you into 
joint-heirship, with Jesus Christ, to the wealth of 
the universe ! 

O, that I could encourage the few, who sigh and 
cry for the abominations which are committed in the 
land, to wait a little longer — yes, work and wait : 

l< So that each, in the day 
Of His coming, may say," 

I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 97 



HAMILTON. 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 



Therefore are they before the throne of God. — Rey. 7: 15. 

My attention was attracted to this passage by the 
first word : "Therefore." The there/ores of the Bible 
remind us of the examples in the old school books; 
they refer to the reason of things, which, to the most 
of minds, is important. There is a class of persons, 
however, who are not so interested in the because of 
a thing. These are called the credulous ; who rest 
their faith mostly on the authority of a fact, or a 
truth, without stopping to inquire into the proba- 
bility, or even the possibility, of the thing. These 
can hardly afford the wear and tear of close investiga- 
tion. A new idea, to such, is more a perplexity, than 
an enjoyment, till they get used to it. To such, the 
reason of a thing is not so important ; they are easy 
believers in anything that comes on good authority. 
These are the more agreeable and companionable sort 
of persons, as they are not apt to question what you 
say. They would not be likely to ask why these old 
saints were made so prominent before the throne ; 
authority placed them there, and that's enough. 



98 HAMILTON. 

Hnppy souls are such, who can take so much for 
granted. Then, there are others, who, if they could 
have one substantial why and wherefore, would 
believe without any authority. These are the critical 
and inquisitive minds, and very apt to become skepti- 
cal, for they will always be finding depths too pro- 
found for their lines to fathom, Avhere they must w r ait 
on the surface, with great nature's processes working 
too deep for comprehension. Such, on standing 
before that honored group near the throne, would be 
apt to ask who they w r ere, and w r hy they were thus 
honored above others? 

These persons should be understood, to be dealt 
with for their good. But whoever undertakes, with 
such minds, may count on waiting, for they cannot 
be hurried through the degrees, as they have every 
inch of the ground to examine as they pass along; 
but when they do reach the goal, they are there w r ith 
emphasis ! 

From this class come the skeptics and infidels. 
From these, also, come the holy giants, who turn the 
world upside down. When such do move right, it's 
with force and decision; for the home conflicts, 
through which they have passed in overcoming them- 
selves, have educated their moral nature up to great 
faith. 

These are such as martyrs are made of. 

There is another incident in connection w T ith the 
text, worthy of attention, viz.: That this inquisitive- 
ness is so respected. 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 99 

For authority, anywhere, to consent to give a reason 
for its action, is considered a mark of kindness. For 
the railroad conductor, for instance, who stops his 
train in the woods, to say why he does it, is taken as 
a sign of a gentleman (it is true, this is rather cheap 
making gentlemen, but so it goes : perhaps, because 
so many disdain to stoop so much as this). 

For a parent to suspend conversation so often, to 
answer the little questions of his child, though an 
annoyance to visitors, is having its good effects on 
the child. The therefore and wherefore — the why 
and because of the Bible, are words of condescension, 
in which the Infinite consents to stoop to our ignor- 
ance, iii somew r hat explaining himself to mortals. 

This one therefore of the text, has opened a flood 
of light on heavenly compensation for holy suffering 
in this life, which must have its effect on the patient 
endurance of believers to the end of time. It also 
authenticates the published character of the Infinite — 
that the Judge of all the earth will do right, if it takes 
eternity to do it in. 

Had not the Eevelator given the interpretation of 
this favored group so near the throne, every new 
comer to paradise might have been perplexed with 
this seeming partiality. Whether God's reasons are 
comprehended by us or not, he has reasons for all his 
words and ways. Hence he who makes arbitrary power 
the rule of God's action, greatly mistakes the Infinite. 

The ways and words of the Most High to man, rest 
not so much on mere prerogative as on moral fitness 



100 HAMILTON. 

or moral necessity. Moral fitness planned the man- 
sions of glory. Moral necessity decreed the gulf of 
hell ! Moral fitness arranged these old sufferers for 
truth and righteousness near the throne ; and all the 
myriads who enter the city above, since their history 
is known, shall welcome those white-vested elders to 
their high position, forever and ever. 

This suggests another incident in connection with 
the text, viz.: That what we see of a thing, whether 
of the literal or spiritual worlds, is generally the 
least part of it. God's philosophy runs too deep for 
the ken of mortals. And this seems to have been 
the perplexity of the Eevelator and the elder, with 
whom he conversed. They did not see enough in 
these glorified spirits, over and above others, to justify 
the high positions given them. Hence the inquiry, 
"What are these?" "What are these more than 
others?" "Whence came they?" Possibly the 
secret of their exaltation may be found in their 
history. So it was in this case, and so it is every- 
where. The ivhy and because of a thing reveals more 
than does the appearance of the thing. 

That a thought, for instance, in any form, can be 
shot through a thousand miles space at one tick of 
the clock, is a hard fact to comprehend, or believe 
either. But if we could see how lightning and thought 
were joined together, we could believe beforehand. 
The mystery is in the harness of the lightning, or 
rather in the lightning itself. 

We stand bewildered before the visible fact and 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 101 

movement of the steam engine — that mightiness on 
wheels. Its power is beyond our comprehension — 
half suspect the driving wheels make the thing go. 
But the because of its going is the deeper mystery* 
We see the thing in its stillest and tamest mood when it 
goes. Suppress and still down that portable thunder 
within its hoops, till the earth trembles under you, 
then let its mouth open at nothing, and you shall 
know what ails the driving wheels. 

A conceited skeptic would like to see the man who 
would explain the new birth, that you preach so much 
about. No one need ask him to believe a thing till 
it ? s explained. My friend, is the new birth the only 
mystery you have found that's beyond your power, 
that you reject it? Have you comprehended all 
things up to this? Just now a leaf sails down into 
our path. Now, my friend, let us stop over this leaf. 
Come, put your spy-glass on this little accident, and 
you shall go crazy before you master even the phi- 
losophy of its color ! 

Yes, the contrivance of God in this leaf, that's to 
perish in a day, will use you up, sir. And now do 
you demand that I explain the transformation of an 
immortal soul, as the condition of your believing it? 
If it were a human theory, or invention, I might 
undertake it. 

A mortal man prays that it may not rain on the 

earth. The thing has a very small appearance — all 

.we see of him is mortal, and subject to our passions. 

The show of the prayer is still less ; so many words 



102 HAMILTON. 

spoken into the air at nothing. And is that the 
beginning and the ending of the thing? Lo, an all- 
restraining power, though unseen, brushes the heavens 
clean of clouds, holding back rain for three years and 
six months ! 

We look into heaven — we see the white-vested 
elders — we expect to see such in heaven — but here 
is a group of honored ones — more honored than 
angels. The question is asked, why thej r are there ? 
Brethren, the therefore of the text refers to the 
marvel of them. There is more in their history than 
in their appearance — the explanation involves dark 
scenes. 

The subject contains some lessons to us who still 
linger in the conflicts of this world : 

First — Of instruction. From this revelation w r e 
learn, that the full history of ihdividual heaven 
includes the antecedents of time. Probably more of 
the scenes of earth are going into the future than we 
are apt to suppose. Time seems ordained to strike 
forward into the great future immeasurably ! — 
lengthening itself — and doubling close down on im- 
mortal existence, as if two eternities had met, giving 
character and degree to endless destiny ! 

For it is not only true, that character is formed 
here, but degree also ; every person carries in him- 
self, from probation, in his mental and moral capacity, 
the measure of his retribution, and this measure can- 
not be added unto nor diminished by enactment — by 
the final sentence of the judge. The happiness of 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 103 

some of the glorified is equal, no doubt, to what two 
heavens would be to others (if the supposition were 
possible). 

Perfect purity, through the blood of the Lamb, 
amid the tribulations and sufferings, in behalf of 
Christ, have to do with that capacity. 

Second — Again, the subject teaches the power of 
contrasts. The poet struck a rare truth when he sang: 

" Great spoils I shall win from death, hell and sin." 

Do my hearers inquire what we gain ? We gain 
this, if nothing more — a contrast to holiness and 
heaven. According to the present law of mind, our 
judgment is made to rest very much on compari- 
son. Things set in contrast react on their opposites 
mutually. We estimate the blessings of holiness very 
much by the curses of sin. On this same principle, 
hell becomes an important data in our reckoning of 
heaven. So may we expect it to be forever, if we 
may predict the future by the analogies of this life, 
to say nothing of the many passages of Scripture 
which confirm the idea. If we enjoy health more 
exquisitely after having been sick, and if he loves 
much to whom much has been forgiven, we are safe 
in saying that the pardon of sin and suffering for 
truth and righteousness shall intensify the heaven of 
the holy. 

Who can doubt that the rich man's hell was aggra- 
vated by seeing Lazarus in Abraham's bosom ? So, 
on the other hand, to hear it said, " They shall suffer 

no more" derives its chief emphasis from the tribula- 
8 



104 HAMILTON. 

tions through which they came. That touching act 
of tenderness, in God " iviping all tears from their 
eyes" can be appreciated only by such eyes. The 
significance and pathos of the act comes from the loud 
lamentations of earth. 

Will it in the end be considered a compliment to 
the unsaved, that we ministers have concealed the 
terrible condition of our congregations, representing 
that they were not so exposed as are the vulgar and 
immoral — that their steps do not so take hold on 
death and hell (though we respect and love them for 
their amiable manners)? Hence we begin our esti- 
mate of them at respectability, good morals and 
intelligence, making this the starting point for 
measuring upward ; while God in his estimate of 
us — of us all — lets his plummet down, down through 
respectability, good morals, baptisms, confirmations 
and common prayer, down till it strikes the bottom of 
hell ! There the wondrous reckoning begins : claim- 
ing for redemption, all that mighty range from the 
depths of woe to the heights of glory, running 
through to the other side of eternity ! To the 
redeemed hosts, perdition is the first great number 
in the arithmetic of heaven. To date our salvation 
at anything this side of hell is a fraud on redemption 
and heaven both ! 

Salvation from and all the way down to the depths 
of our exposure, belongs with salvation to and all the 
way up, as its contrast. Hence the saints above, as 
well as the saints below, never get over saying and 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 105 

singing (mark the contrast in this passage), "Unto 
him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his 
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto 
God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion 
for ever and ever. Amen ! " 

The glory of heaven will be more effulgent to the 
redeemed, no doubt, for its shining against the night 
of time. As the sufferings of earth, recollected in 
heaven, shall help to a higher appreciation of ever- 
lasting deliverance, so conversely. 

Anticipations of "Come, ye blessed of my father," 
when tears are wiped from all eyes, are now assuag- 
ing our grief — inspiring our songs and lifting up 
many a bowed head. The old reckoning is still go- 
ing on, " That the sufferings of this present time are 
not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall 
be revealed in us." 

To the old patriarchs and martyrs now before the 
throne, the tribulations, imprisonments and suffer- 
ings unto death, were as the wink of darkness at a 
distant day. As if an individulal, by shutting his eyes, 
thought to make it dark among the stars, because it 
were dark to him. No doubt it looked dark to their 
murderers ; but the out-look — the spiritual observa- 
tory of these living and dying witnesses for God, 
stands the other side of the eclipses, facing the 
lights that never go out in the upper windows. 
Then, when the last stru^o-le subsides and all is over, 
in the Christian's last sundown here, is the break of 
his high eternal morn ! 



106 HAMILTON. 

Friends, do you anticipate a great heaven ? Do 
you hope to reach the rank of the once despised and 
rejected of earth — of those who were " killed all the 
day long and counted as sheep for the slaughter — of 
whom the world was not worthy?" Then accept 
the tribulations — then accept the labors and sufferings 
in behalf of Christ — then come forth in clean robes, 
in white robes, washed in the blood of the Lamb ! 

Third — The subject has to us the voice of warn- 
ing. God not only redeemed man by man, but he 
also instructs, reproves and inspires us through our 
fellows. A living righteous man robs iniquity of its 
excuses. God speaks to the world in the most audi- 
able voice, through the biographies of the Bible. 
He speaks also through the living. His voice has 
come to my unworthy heart with telling accent, 
through those of smaller minds and fewer advan- 
tages. But I have seen God through the thinnest 
vails — in deaf and dumb persons. But when we come 
to the Bible examples, they have this advantage of all 
others; their holy living and triumphant dying has 
the seal and endorsement of the Searcher of Hearts; 
hence no discounts are to be made through suspicion. 

I stand in awe of the righteous dead ! The 
examples of sixty centuries are looking back upon 
us ! and at times I feel the influence of their look. 
I mean those old divinely authenticated patterns of 
faith and holiness — those who suffered the loss of all 
things for the name of Christ. 

God, partly through a severe sickness, has toned 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 107 

me down, and stilled me down so softly, that I hear 
voices from the dead ; for God has some deceased ones 
whose speaking he has not stopped yet. And at 
times I stand still and speechless before the murmur- 
ing dead — the talk of muffled tongues, muffled in 
blood ! The martyred hosts of the glorified are 
more alive to me to-day than are many good sort of 
people who never died ; that is, I feel them more — 
feel the restraints and inspiration of their inflexible 
rectitude. For a good man once in this world, and well 
set agoing, is not easily got out of it. There is often 
more of him left after he has gone out of sight than 
appeared while he lived. Superhuman dying is the 
great Amen to a righteous life, and often induces a 
re-estimate of the person. Abel is an active power 
in the world to-day ! 

By this comparison, I not only see my un worthi- 
ness, but feel reproved also. O, how foolish — how 
child-minded I seem, grieving over my little troubles, 
with the beheaded witnesses of God standing before 
me, especially when I hear the souls beneath the 
altar groan. Now, what use is to be made of all this 
— this history of tears and blood — of suffering and 
martyrdom for truth and righteousness ? For there's 
a voice in this history which comes rolling down the 
ages for the church to hear. There 7 s a meaning in 
that mysterious sentence: "He being dead, yet 
speaketh." Brethren, it is no trifling circumstance 
to us, and we shall find it more than an incident in 
its bearing on our accountability, that we are coming 



108 HAMILTON. 

in the rear of the blood-washed multitudes of six 
thousand years ! These are God's empaneled wit- 
nesses, that redemption through the offering of Jesus 
Christ is a success — that the holiness of man is possi- 
ble, even through martyrdom. 

They say : " Look through the privations and labors 
— the persecutions — the shedding of blood like water 
for the centuries past, then estimate the cost of the 
Christianity of your day/ 7 Though heads moulder 
here and bodies moulder there, yet both speak alike. 
They say : " Will you ride in ease — in worldly pomp 
and carnal pleasure, on swells which have occupied 
sixty centuries in forming ; — swells of holy and far- 
reaching influence, red with the blood of righteous 
Abel ? " 

They say to us : "Will you pervert the conviction 
of the world, through these superhuman sufferings 
for truth, to church aggrandizement, making respect- 
ability of manners the sum of Christianity? 77 Let 
the self-complacent, over great benevolence expended 
for worldly churches, sitting at ease in the pew and 
in Zion, cast a look back on their spiritual ancestry, 
noting well that company, who "wandered in sheep 
skins and goat skins, being destitute, afflicted, tor- 
mented ! 77 

Let them number up the great fights of affliction 
in behalf of the Christianity of heaven, giving to this 
age civil liberty and freedom of conscience. 

And is this the object of the struggles of the dead ? 
Is this the end of this accumulated suffering ? Has 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 109 

this holy influence — this tidal wave, which dates back 
to righteous Abel, come all the wav through, to be 
perverted to the ambition and aims of an aristocratic 
church, vieing with each other in strife and vain-glory 
for the most costly edifices of worship, to the neglect 
of the poor and the wicked? 

What is this conciliating the rulers and the rich, 
by widening the gate to heaven, but a reflection an 
the rectitude of the dead ? Saying, "If we had lived 
in the ('ays of suffering unto death, we would have 
saved the blood of the prophets, by inculcating a 
liberal Christianity. " Will this insinuation spare the 
Saviour? Judge ye. 

Fourth, and lastly — The subject brings to the 
believing heart, courage and inspiration. 

Although we may feel poor and almost worthless — 
almost beneath the notice of angels and God, when 
set in contrast with some of the Bible examples of 
faith, yet, coming into closer fellowship with thern^. 
we not only find our hearts burning within us, in 
these mysterious communings, but they impart their 
spirt of holy daring also. 

We leave the contemplation of these holy examples,, 
saying to ourselves: "If God carried these great 
sufferers through so gloriously, surely He can cause 
me to triumph through our Lord Jesus Christ^ 

Brethren, there are persons here to-day, who never 
so felt the need of the society and fellowship of adult 
Christians, as of late — of those who have been per- 



110 HAMILTON. 

fected and purified in furnaces of God's own heating! 
By these meetings such are finding each other. 

At times we feel so companionless and disgusted 
in the noise and parade of man show, that we resort 
to the biography of patriarchs and martyrs for 
society. Not but that there are as holy ones on earth 
to-day, as ever suffered the flames of persecution ; but, 
as bodies to distant climes repair as we sing, there 
are times when the dead seem nearer than the living ; 
perhaps the mood of mind has to do with this kind 
of distance. 

If I may speak of myself, will say, I never felt the 
influence and fellowship of my holy ancestry as of 
late. 

In the disgust of heartless forms and ceremonies, 
I go down among the dens and caves of the earth, 
where once dwelt the high-born of heaven. I stand 
within those old mud homes of mildew and silence, 
and ask: "Did God ever dwell in such a place as 
this ? " I smell the lingering odor of incense offered 
thousands of years ago ; and, looking down on the 
dim sanded tracks, involuntarily ask God to bless the 
dear old saints who once prayed here, forgetting that 
they are now before the throne, attracting the admi- 
ration of heaven. 

Then I have some good times with Joseph of 
Aramathea. It was he who took care of my Saviour 
when he was dead — when he was dead for my 
sake. I shall never forget Joseph for this ; blessed 
soul, I want to see him now, for we love each other. 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. Ill 

I expect to inquire for him among those who are 
before the throne of God, for he is known — all the 
redeemed people know Joseph. It was he who 
planted himself with his faith, his reputation and his 
everlasting hope, on the side of Christ and redemp- 
tion, when all there was left of the system, and all 
there was left for the world, to hope in, was the dead 
Xazarene ! Joseph said practically: "This is my 
Saviour, dead or alive : and here I trust my eternal 
all in the merit of this bloody offering. 7 ' This is the 
faith God delights to honor. In tenderness and holy 
affection Joseph bore him who had been called u Car- 
penter's Son/ 7 to his own new tomb, to await the 
prediction of a buried man. But O, the mighty 
reverse ! When the clock of time struck the pre- 
dicted third day, the rocky tomb, with the great stone 
at its mouth — Roman soldiers — king of terrors — all 
things let go their hold for great resurrection. 

Mocking Jerusalem, with jubilant hell, feels 
Jehovah's nod ! When lo, the Crucified swings back 
the gates of death, leaving blood on its threshold, 
exclaiming: " I that speak in righteousness, Mighty 
to Save ! " Here, at length, is the interpretation of 
him who in prophetic vision was seen long ago, " com- 
ing from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah, 
traveling in the greatness of his strength." 

The hazardous faith of Joseph is confirmed — the 
title to eternal life of the multitudes who believed in 
the seed of the woman who was to come, is re-endorsed, 
while the promises of four thousand years 7 postpone- 



112 HAMILTON. 

rnent are all fulfilled, with a superabundance of grace 
and redeeming merit treasured for the ages to come. 
(Some will call this a digression — so let it be.) 

Joseph ! we are still coming — in these distant 
years we are coming, to crown the Great Messiah, 
Jesus, whose sacrificial body you took care of while 
lying dead ! We are coming, for aught I know, to 
congratulate you on your immortal honor. 

Since faith is heir to all righteousness, which is by 
faith, we claim rights in all its achievements. 

For our encouragement, let us glance back on the 
history of faith's triumphant march, now running 
back a distance of six thousand years without a 
break. What a marvelous record of God's triumphs 
in behalf of faith ! This is the Divine succession ! 

The inspiration of one triumph acting on the adja- 
cent conflict, has decided a second victory ; that 
another — then another — glory intersecting glory, till 
-we have a line of triumph-lights all the way down to 
the present. So that in surveying the past, we may 
travel all the way back to first victory in Abel, with- 
out stepping off the battle-field of faith. 

But let us premise this, that iniquity defeated goes 
to the credit of faith, along with truth vindicated — 
as the defeat of a foe is often half the battle. 

I do not enjoy suffering anywhere nor in anything; 
but I enjoy justice when inflicted in behalf of mercy 
and righteousness. After that bloody Herod family 
had slaughtered the children — sported w T ith the head 
of John the Baptist, just to please a prancing girl 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 113 

and her demon mother — had killed James and im- 
prisoned Peter — to see but one of this tribe being 
eaten of worms, I feel like saying : Worms ! do your 
duty this time and clear the world of the last of them. 
At least, I have no objections to such a death for such 
monsters. 

The cause of humanity, to say nothing of Chris- 
tianity, demanded that some of those old tyrants 
should be made a spectacle of wrath. 

But I do like to ask Herod's waiters, why they 
failed to make chains stay on Peter ! Both events 
go to the vindication of the persecuted, and the 
endorsement of their faith. 

But the great iron gate of the city has a record 
belonging to this line. I ask, who went through here, 
that night when you opened, and couldn't help it? 

Philippi has some visible memorials of faith's 
triumphant march. Ask her prison : u What ailed 
thee on that memorable ni^ht, when saints sano- God's 
praise within thy cells ?" And ye massive stocks ! 
now witness for prayer — say if you didn't asunder 
part, for a man on his knees, and couldn 't help it ? 

At times do you feel weak and timid, before the 
rushing wickedness of the times, and say : " What can 
I do in these whirlpools of ruin ? " Do you cry to 
God to give you courage ? So do I, and he sends me 
down to Midia to see Daniel, that champion for truth, 
who dared a whole nation, lions and all. That ? s the 
way he answers my prayer at times. 

I go to his chamber — that sacred place where God 



114 HAMILTON. 

gives power to a mortal, against that infidel decree of 
thirty days. I go outside, and look up into those 
open windows, and let them preach to this trembling 
coward. O, how wide open they look — how heroic ; 
as much as to say, " Not a window that faces Jerusa- 
lem shall go down in this house. These open win- 
dows shall stand as a sign, both to God and King 
Darius. If they prove my disloyalty to the wicked 
decree, they shall also witness to my unfaltering trust 
in the God of Heaven." Now let the claims of God 
and King Darius culminate over open windows. 

Brethren, did it ever occur to you that these win- 
dows have never been shut? Nay; they are to stand 
visibly open to the end of time. They are the living 
attestations — the visible memorials of a faith that 
conquered the love of applause — the love of office — 
the love of money — that conquered the fear of death 
— that conquered a nation to God in a day ! Open 
windows ! they belong to the character both of God 
and Daniel. 

Friends, do you at times feel a faintness coming 
into your hearts ? Look to the open windows ! for 
the} r belong not only to the record of Daniel, but 
also to the encouragement of your faith. I enter 
that sacred chamber of heroic transaction, where God 
meets a mortal ; where, too, may be heard the growl 
of beasts, quarreling over their lean bones, as if to fore- 
warn their victim of what comes next. I feel that 
chamber shake, as that man of awful daring comes to 
his knees for prayer; he bows with such emphasis, as 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 115 

if he would say: "Now knees, stand your ground 
for God ! And ye open windows, be my witnesses 
that I pray this day as afore time! " 

Praise the Lord for Daniel ! Perhaps he has done 
more for this coward than any dead man I never saw, 
except Paul. I do not say he has instructed me more, 
but he has breathed courage into me. Presume I 
have a capacity for Daniel, or, at least, a need of 
such help. 

Leaving his chamber of prayer, let us follow 
Daniel to the Lions' Den, and there wait for morn- 
ing — for that memorable morning, when the king, 
with his officers and the neighbors generally, meet to 
learn the fate of Daniel, and also who is henceforth 
to be God. 

Daniel comes forth unhurt from amid the gleaming 
eyes of that den, pronouncing blessings on the king ; 
for the God whom he served continually, delivered 
him from the power of lions, just as the king pre- 
dicted that he would. While some rejoice over the 
good man's deliverance, I hear a muttering sound 
from others. There are groups here and there of 
persecutors and heathen, saying with vehemence : 
" Over-fed ! over-fed ! M Is that the sound I hear 
from those who plotted the destruction of the man of 
prayer? "Secretly over-fed the night before, think- 
ing to palm off a fictitious God on the nation ! Yes, 
that 's the cheat in this game." 

Then go round with a religious face, saying, " The 
God of Heaven delivered me from the mouth of 



116 HAMILTON. 

lions, will ye?" "And there is old Darius, don't 
know any better than to believe such nonsense." So 
the decree conies forth : " Down ! where fire-balls 
gleam in darkness — down where teeth and claws wait 
for prey — down — down, every one of you, who hate 
Daniel and doubt God !" u Now let this controversy 
be settled by experiment ; but" (tauntingly) "come 
back as soon as possible, and let the nation know all 
about this cheat." Hark to the crash of infidel 
bones ! God and Daniel both are endorsed by the 
crash of bones. When were so grave questions made 
to hang on ravenous instinct ? When were beasts 
turned to better account? O, Daniel! live forever! 
Down in Babylon we find also a monument to faith 
and God. In that wicked city were found the three 
staunch believers in the true God, who were required to 
worship a dumb image which the king had set up. 
They refused to worship idols. " Then you shall be 
cast into the fiery furnace, and we shall heat it seven 
times hotter than common." "Very well; you can 
heat away, we are not careful to answer in this mat- 
ter. The God whom we serve has forbidden the 
worship of idols, and we shall disobey this heathen 
king in favor of the God of Heaven — the result is his, 
and not ours. You can neither scare us nor music us 
into idolatry — that is the end of the argument, so 
you can put your furnace agoing as soon as you 
please (but don't go too near when you put us in, as 
fire burns)." Fiery furnace ! the sight of which puts 






THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 117 

us into distress; when we know it is being heated for 
human beings. 

But O, the deliverance ! yea, the defeat also, how 
great ! I look into that lurid abyss, and ask, Are 
you the thing that tried to burn four men instead of 
three, and failed on the w r hole ? And why did you 
fail? 

I close these examples and the subject with this 
caution : Not to make the favor of God nor the faith 
of saints depend on miraculous interposition for the 
deliverance of the persecuted. The lesson for us is 
drawn less from these marvelous deliverances, but 
more from that inflexible rectitude and superhuman 
daring, which stood the most severe tests which 
wicked men could devise ; and, if rightly viewed, we 
shall find the greater miracle in the unyielding integ- 
rity and heroic daring of these old sufferers for truth 
and righteousness. These visible interpositions were 
more in behalf of a heathen world, than for any 
special good to the persecuted. They were blessed 
with a holy existence, which rose triumphantly above 
the power of death in any form. These outward 
signs, to them, w r ere only as circumstances, attesting 
to the outside world, to the greater miracle of soul- 
power; while to the persecuted, the Spirit's inner voice 
to man's consciousness must be more than the restraint 
of lions for his sake. 

It 's a small matter with Omnipotence to neutralize 
fire on flesh, or hold at bay the ravenousness of 



118 HAMILTON. 

beasts for the night ; but to exalt fallen man to such 
intense delight in God, and awful daring for his sake, 
as to face death in its most appalling forms without 
blanching — to walk into fire in the serenity of a trust 
known only to tried faith, is more than man ! And 
but for the apparent irreverence, might say, it is above 
Omnipotence. Something more than Omnipotence is 
requisite to transform depraved man into so high a 
resemblance to the Divine, as to leave a heathen 
nation in doubt whether he is more man than God. 
"Here the whole Deity is known. " 

Shall we saj T that these Hebrews, walking into fire 
with an unfaltering step and an unfaltering soul, 
reveal less of God than when they walked out of fire, 
by the interposition of Almightiness ? Their going 
in as they did, reveals God in man • their coming 
out, reveals God in fire. 

Brethren, w r hat is the degree of our moral power ? 
How much of opposition can w 7 e stand against ? How 
strong a current can we breast ? Not of cruelty 
and murder for Christ's sake, but of plausible, soft- 
handed wrong, so peculiar to this age. Dare we be 
true to God and our own convictions, though against 
baptized aristocratic wrong ? When Bible religion 
makes its possessor an oddity in some sections of the 
church, and in the world generally, w r ho dare be 
singular for Christ's sake ? 

O, for the holy power of the infant church ! when 
her members were few and poor, and despised by the 
world — when their names were cast out as evil, and 



THE GLORIFIED SUFFERERS. 119 

they were counted as the offscourings of all things 
for Christ's sake. Although we may never rank with 
martyrs in suffering and persecution, we may be 
worthy of their brotherhood for our purity. If we 
are found less than they in scars, let us reach their 
degree in holiness and usefulness. 

Becoming poor in this world, in behalf of the 
eternal inheritance, is our privilege. How marvelous 
that arrangment by which exhaustion brings riches ! 
These holy workers together with God. increase by 
scattering — grow rich by giving. When we come to 
a correct estimate of time and eternity — of earth and 
heaven, the glory and unending happiness of Him who 
was reduced even to a shadow here for the sake of 
others, will change also — change greatly, to the advan- 
tage of the immortal state. Then, when those others 
shall have gained the final victory, standing on the 
Mount Zion of the upper kingdom, glorified with the 
brethren of Jesus Christ, who shall tell the sum of 
that man's joy, who spent himself in bringing so 
many sons to glory ? 

Brethren, this glory and immortality is within our 
reach ; at least, by holy works and ways let us make 
ourselves worthy of our spiritual pedigree. Then 
shall it be said, even of us : M Therefore are they 
before the throne of God.'' 

While the following hymn was being sung, heavenly 
unction rested on the people : 

Who are these arrayed in white, 

Brighter than the noon-day sun? 
Foremost of the sons of light, 

Nearest the eternal throne? 



120 HAMILTON. 



These are they that bore the cross, 
Nobly for their master stood ; 

Suff'rers in his righteous cause, 
FolPwers of the dying God. 

Out of great distress they came ; 

Washed their robes by faith below, 
In the blood of yonder Lamb — 

Blood that washes white as snow. 
Therefore are they next the throne, 

Serve their Maker day and night. 
G-od resides among his own ; 

God doth in his saints delight. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 
From Sackcloth to Gloey.* 

[First remarks of Rev. Pomeroy, at the National Camp Meeting at 
Hamilton, Mass.] 

The leader of the meeting says : Give us experi- 
ence. The most prominent experience with me is 
that of smallness. 

(A voice: "This is Brother Pomeroy." Another 
voice : "Come on to the stand, brother.") 

No, I am well enough here. 

(Again : " Come ; the people want to see you.") 

Well, well, they will see enough of me before we 
get through ; let me talk ; I feel small, and poor, and 
bashful — feel better low down than high up ; it suits 
my mood of mind. I had just such a feeling last 
year at Pound Lake, and many others since. 

If one would like to see how small a thing he can 
be shrunk to, let him attend one of these meetings, 

*From the Living Epistle. 



TALKS AXD TESTBIOXIES. 121 

where many of the great and good come together 
from half the continent. 

Then, on the other hand, if he would know to what 
an exaltation of holy thought, of spiritual vision, of 
moral mightiness, he can reach and live, let him come 
here, but let him come in lowliness and faith. 

This is a wonderful place for one to go both ways, 
but it is the last place for one to stand still ; statu quo 
is not known here, while the great glory of this 
modern Mount Z:on wakes the dead for miles around. 

But mark this, it is our work and our business to 
go down, while it is God's work to raise us up, and he 
does n't want our help to do it, either. Here is where 
we are apt to fail, by forestalling God in trying to 
exalt ourselves, thinking that it is time to rise when 
it is not. God could exalt a world of human beings 
to-day, if they would first consent to humble them- 
selves. There is nothing doubtful or critical in God's 
exalting one who has abased himself. But O, this 
going down to no importance at all, this is the criti- 
cal point, this is anti-man. For many of us, as au 
old writer observes, have a touch of the Simon Magus 
in us, a sl3 r feeling that we are some great one. 

Now this self-conceit must go down to ashes, and with 
the most of us this is the crucifixion. Many would 
sooner go strutting, though it were to hell, than go on 
their knees to heaven. Now who dare break down, 
who dare sink to no account with man, on the credit 
of Jesus Christ? Down every soul of us — down to 
dust, and lie there till we can say fool eloquently. 



122 HAMILTON. 

God can raise us up on the credit of our sinking 
faith, and do it alone, and do it when it is needful. 
Now be patient, lie low, be quiet, and the world shall 
see how God can triumph in dust ! 

Old Routines Pekplexed.* 

[Talk of Rev. B. Pomeroy, at the late National Camp Meeting, at 
Hamilton, Mass.] 

This is a great spiritual focus — this is where heaven 
and earth blend — where the two kingdoms come 
together. 

No common thing can answer here. 

Come to a focus in faith — in thought — in feeling 
and talk ; give us truth as naked of words as 
possible. 

Brother G asked me if I felt like spreading 

myself. I said, "No; I feel like condensation — full 
of pith and point." 

No common song, nor sermon, nor prayer, can meet 
the demand of this occasion. This is a high dispen- 
sation of light and truth and power. This is too 
glorious, too divine, for the old routines to maintain 
themselves. 

How the old circles of thought and talk and feel- 
ing, get mixed up here. 

Now break out of the old ruts of monotony, and 
make a new track on the field of holy vision. 

Now take in the Eevelations — go where you never 
were before. But don't go off for Pisgah — don't try 

* From The Earnest Christian. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 123 

to soar; but go down to lowliness, meekness and 
child-like simplicity. 

O, let us bend and bow before this New Testament 
Shekina — this Holy Ghost dispensation ; lie low down 
in the trough of this sea, and let God's waves go 
over us. 

The heavenly tide is coming in — I seem to hear 
the rush of coming waters ! 

No New Theory. 

It appeared to some that the minister in his remarks 
last evening, while he made it easy for the opposers 
of this work, made it rather hard for its friends. He 
says : "You may not fall in with our theory, or adopt 
our particular dogma on the subject of Christian holi- 
ness or sanctification ; but I think you will admit that 
our religion makes us about as happy as you are made 
by yours." Now that minister agrees with me, audi 
with him, and both agree with the teachings of the 
Bible on this subject. He w r as only a little careless 
in expressing his ideas, and I find some are likely to 
wield the mistake against the friends of this work. 

I cannot say what the object was of those who were 
the means of getting me to this meeting ; but, for 
myself, I did not come here to advocate my theory or 
my dogma, on the subject of Christian holiness ; 
neither did the brother who spoke last evening. I 
have no right to get up a theory on religion. God 
has published to the world a system of salvation, and 
committed himself to it, and w T oe to him who under- 



124 HAMILTON. 

takes to mend God's plan for saving the lost. This 
may be called my theory only as I have adopted it 
from the Bible. 

Had I the authority to invent a religion, it would 
not be much like the one required of us in the Bible ; 
at least, it would not be so old-fashioned nor so anti- 
natural. If left to my own conceited wisdom, should 
say less about depravity and make more of genteel, 
educated humanity, perhaps allow that such had 
grown themselves into the kingdom, especially if they 
were benevolent. In short, I should make more of 
man, of his social qualities and good morals, and less 
of Jesus Christ. But this coming out from the world 
and being separate — this counting all things as loss 
and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of 
Christ Jesus — then to degrade a smart, intelligent 
person, who abounds in good works, to a sounding 
brass or tinkling cymbal, just because he lacks some 
supernatural grace — some old-fashioned saintly quali- 
fication, is enough to spoil any religion; at least, with 
conceited smartness and self-righteousness, which are 
two prominent forms of depravity at present. 

I never made my religion as a system, hence I have 
no theory of my own to maintain ; am not responsi- 
ble for its origin nor for its results; am only responsi- 
ble for its practice. And by the grace of God, I mean 
so to embrace and practice this heavenly Christianity, 
so unnatural to wickedness and depravit} 7 , as to make 
the Infinite God responsible for my well-being, both 
in time and eternity. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 125 

This responsibility God has assumed, on the condi- 
tion of obedience. When I substitute my notions for 
God's law, I forfeit my claim to his promise. While 
we are meek and humble, and condescending to meu 
of low degree, especially in spiritual things ; 

And it becomes us to be very patient with others, 
for some of us have been borne with long in our half- 
heartedness in religion. But don't think that you are 
to beg the privilege of being Methodists in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Neither offer apolo- 
gies for being such. The real children of this Zion- 
mother have no occasion for begging the privileges 
of the family of illegitimates, w r ho are born of worldly 
policy, and made the mistake of getting into a church 
raised up to spread Scriptural holiness over the lands, 
and now propose, after Scriptural holiness has given 
us the ascendency over all other churches in America, 
to take this monument church — this monument of 
God's redeeming power and providence, for a worldly- 
shoio church. 

The world is not suffering, either, for show-churches 
or show-men. But it is dying spiritually, for want of 
Bible Christians — those who can forego the praise of 
men for the honor that comes from above. 

We wish all to understand, that we are not here to 
advocate any peculiar or new theory ; we are relieved 
of that superfluous task. 

This is Methodism ! As it was — as it is — as it ever 
shall be ! Yea, more ; this is essential Methodism, as 
it is essential Christianity. 



126 HAMILTON. 

When I doubt holiness as the duty and privilege 
of believers, I shall doubt Christianity in general. 
When we give up one, we must, from necessity, at 
least, doubt the other. 

Now, my friends, don't allow yourselves to be 
reproached with the charge of having embraced a 
new theory on religion. Especially w T hen you have 
the history of one hundred years in our own Church 
to fall back upon. Evoke the testimony of the sainted 
dead J For they and you are on the same side. 

If the professors in some churches are against you, 
the righteous dead are on your side all the way back 
to Enoch, Mid even beyond. 

A Word About Hamilton. 

In parting with Hamilton, it may be proper to add 
a word respecting the meeting in general. It is not 
enough to say, that the grounds were beautiful ; they 
seemed more the result of a united effort of man with 
creation, in making this the most enchanting place 
for a meeting we ever visited, after allowing all its 
defects. The meeting, though not near as large as 
Bound Lake, or Manheim, was, perhaps, the most 
profitable of all. 

The effects of truth were far-reaching and deep ; 
abiding to this day, as I have some opportunity for 
knowing. Having visted the churches in eleven 
States the past season, including the neighborhoods 
of different meetings, ought to know something of 
the state of Zion. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 127 

Ministers here of different denominations embraced 
the great climax, truth, in Christianity to a large 
extent. Think of seventy-five of these servants of 
the Lord, prostrate in the dust at one time, seeking 
for this fundamental qualification of the embassadors 
of Christ, the holiness of their natures. This estimate 
is not a random guess ; they were counted. 

Whether it may be considered strictly proper in 
this place to speak of things so personal, is doubtful ; 
but it is strictly just, at least on one side. It is an 
act of justice on my part to say, that strangers, of 
their own thought and choice, contributed to our 
expenses at this meeting till the last dollar was paid ; 
one brother, of Lynn, giving twenty dollars, by which 
I was enabled to return five dollars, given by one 
whose heart, I found, to be larger than his means. 

For one having neither salary nor worldly business, 
such things are apt to make an impression not soon 
forgotten ; such, too, as the favored ones, whose 
ample salary goes on, whether they are at home or 
abroad, know but little of. But it's all the same, or 
it soon will be. One has the promise of God and 
man both for his support ; the other has to take the 
Lord alone. Don't you pity him? With only the 
promise of the Infinite, and no official board — no, 
not one mortal to back the promise ? 

I refer all these considerate, generous souls, to my 
Master for their reward, who is amply able to keep 
his kingdom out of debt. 



128 0AKINGT0N. 



OAKI^GTO^. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 



What is Egypt to Canaan? 
a characteristic speech. 
Rev. Brother Pomeroy, author of a work called 
" Shocks from the Battery/ 7 made a characteristic 
speech at the Sunday morning love feast. He said : 
11 When the brother who has just spoken, commenced 
his quotation, I supposed he was about to say, ' Little 
children, keep yourselves from idols. 7 I wish to 
emphasize idols. I look upon it as a reproach to 
Christ, for me to cry hosanna to Jesus to-day, and 
to-morrow go after the world's pleasures. Now they 
have good boarding-houses here, and yet I find it con- 
venient at times to piece out my meal at the lunch- 
room. But this kingdom-table needs no piecing out. 
Here are all the luxuries and varieties which my 
nature craves. I sit down to this banquet of mind — 
this high dispensation of grace and glory — contented. 
This mind-happiness, I see, is already affecting the 
Canaan market for Egypt's leeks and onions. This 
revival of Bible religion will prove a hard blow to 
prostitute France. 






TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 129 

"It is a practical notification to the coming cargoes, 
that they had better turn back. This sending onions 
over to Cauaan is a burlesque on that land of milk 
and honey. 

"Let Israel's tribe enter Canaan at once, but away 
with your Egypt pleasures." 

Clinging to the Cross.* 

At a meeting in the Tabernacle at Oakington, after 
a beautiful hymn had been sung by Brother Wells, 
chorused with the soul-stirring words, "I'm clinging 
to the Cross," with remarkable power, Brother Pome- 
roy, much excited, exclaimed : " Yes, I am clinging to 
the Cross ! " This is my hope and this my hold — this 
is my hold against myself — against a mere intel- 
lectual religion — against the cunning craftiness of the 
world and the sophistry of Satan. Though other 
hopes may fail, and other functions and powers of 
body and intellect give way, let this cling-power of 
the soul be the last to let go — like a man clinging 
to a rock, over the precipice, till his body dies and 
falls into the abyss below, leaving his fingers, which 
died so stiff that they clinch the rock still. So when 
health and life and body fail and sink, let this faith- 
clincr of the soul hold firm to the Rock of A^es. 

This is the Christian's safety — yea, this his serenity 
when death draws near and soul and body part. 
Anchored here he laughs to scorn the tempest of the 
seas, and sings earth's tumult down. — [C. L.] 

*In the M. H, Journal. 



130 OAKINGTON. 

How Christianity Becomes Natural to Man.* 

After an excellent sermon by Rev. W. H. Harlow, 
of Providence, Conn., on the text, "That Christ may 
dwell in your hearts by faith, 7 ' Rev. B. Pomeroy 
asked the privilege of speaking, which was granted. 
Though it had been arranged for one of the Com- 
mittee to occupy the time, but he kindly gave way, 
when Brother Pomeroy proceeded after the follow- 
ing rnanner : 

11 God's philosophy of making us like himself is a 
great mystery. It does not consist in outward imita- 
tion. It is Christ dwelling in our hearts, which 
makes us like himself at the seat and center of our 
being. 

"How unlike the religion of the world, which 
consists in the practice of certain virtues and cere- 
monies ! As if the imitation of Christianity at certain 
points within the practice of man, proved him to be 
a Christian. As well might we affirm that a parrot is 
a man, because he speaks some words like his owner. 
To mimic a man's mouth is a small thing, but to 
transform a parrot into the nature of man is another 
thing. 

"Dr. Bangs was a great and good minister, but he 
carried his head on one side. Some of the 3 r oung min- 
isters were so captivated with the good man that they 
were found carrying their heads on one side, invol- 
untarily ; but that did not make them Dr. Bangs. 

* Reported by Rev. S. Leslie, Weaver, Pa. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 131 

So it is spiritually. There are persons who flatter 
themselves that if they act out, or rather take on 
certain appearances of the Christian, they are 
Christians. Whereas, God's method of making 
Christians is neither to begin nor end with action or 
appearance, but to begin with the inner nature, mak- 
ing us right at the heart, leaving the heart to control 
the action and the life ; for neither life nor action is 
religious or virtuous, nor even legitimate, that has 
not its root and impulse in the heart. Common sin- 
ners would even despise each other in their social 
intercourse, for motives that began anywhere this 
side of the heart. They call such hypocritical — 
deceitful — sly — two-sided. Does Christianity accept 
of a lower standard of honesty, in action and inter- 
course, than the social relations demand ? 

" Christ dwelling in our hearts, makes us Christians 
at the vital point of our being — at the source of 
thought — of motive — of action and life. But the 
deeper question relates to the philosophy of doing 
all this. 

"In what relation or capacity does Christ propose 
to dwell in our hearts ? We all say he is there as 
our Prophet, Priest and King — he reigns in us. 

"But how does he reign in us? By restraint, hold- 
ing badness in check and making us good by coercion 
— eternally driving us on in a way we do not like, 
where we even hope to go to heaven, not for the sake 
of heaven so much, as to see our friends and to evade 
hell. 



132 OAKINGTON. 

" My mother, though long dead, rules in me to-day. 
Do you ask, how ? She rules by her nature. Her 
nature predominates in my nature, so that I naturally 
act my mother. So Christ, by this same philosophy, 
dwells in the Christian spiritually, by his inborn 
nature ; by which a believer, living a life that's hid 
w r ith Christ in God, is acting on the deepest and most 
reliable philosophy of the universe, viz., Naturalness. 
A saint is more than a man, though the man may be 
under the discipline of correct rules and influenced 
hy holy principles. He is a Christ-man. Christ's 
nature predominates in him as his nature. 

"Perhaps it is safe to say that Christ dwelling in 
a human mind, as the controlling nature of that mind, 
is the highest throne — the most glorifying position of 
the Infinite. 

u 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts!' The 
minister has attached much importance to this propo- 
sition, and it's well he did, for this is Redemption's 
climax — this is the victory — this is man reversed ! 
Great restoration ! the two beings again harmonize 
in one nature ! 

"My hearers perhaps are ready to exclaim : How 
can it be that a finite can be put in sympathy with 
the Infinite ? 

"I am here reminded of an experiment once made 
in France. Certain physicians conceived the idea of 
making the aged young again, by the infusion of 
youthful blood. All who submitted to the experi- 
ment died of madness. The exhilaration and acceler- 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 133 

ation of the youthful blood drove the old machinery 
so fast that it flew out of gear — they went crazy. 
This is a kind of new wine that makes bad work with 
old bottles. 

"Here the question recurs with greater force : If 
this is the result of mixing young life with old life, 
what must be the result of bringing the divine life 
in contact with the human ? But for one fact we 
should expect every case to go distracted. Our safety 
lies in our deep immortal contrivance. We are 
adapted to the divine nature, both in essence and 
mechanism — we were wrought up to this high and 
holy life in our creation. Now, although man has 
fallen from the state of holiness, wherein he was 
created, the natural adaptation and capacity remain, 
so that God's old idea of man may be inferred from 
this human wreck — from what still appears of this 
created capacity for holiness. 

"As you prove the necessity of water from the 
nature and organs of the fish, so we prove the neces- 
sity of God and holiness from the make of man. 
Man's increasing capacities in connection with the 
vastness of his wants, along with his immortal long- 
ings for something which the world has never yet 
given, is evidence that there ought to be. if there is 
not, somewhere within his reach, a good, full equal to 
God and holiness and heaven; or he ought to be 
unmade at once, or, at least, he ought to be relieved 
of some of his infinitudes and animalized clown to 
the only world and the only good there is within his 



134 OAKINGTON. 

reach. On this supposition, man stands as the great 
blunder of creation; he is either made too great or 
too little. Better by far be an insect even, with his 
full nature and all his wants satisfied, than this sup- 
posed man, with vast soul hanging outside of all 
worlds. To close up my creation anywhere between 
the spheres or worlds, is the worst of all places to 
stop at — too great for this w r orld of little animal 
pleasures, and yet not exalted quite up to the 
spiritual world. 

" Painful contradiction ! With a nature and capa- 
cities for holiness, and yet deprived of its attain- 
ments. Skeptic, creation is against thee ! I array 
thyself- — thy old original likeness against thy cavil- 
ings. 

"Now this is the point; to say that I cannot, 
through the atonement, be so restored to the Divine 
image, as to make Christ natural to me as an indwell- 
ing God and happiness, is to charge the atonement 
with failure at the most essential point; for if redemp- 
tion in its provisions stops at any degree short of the 
restoration of man to true holiness, it's a failure — 
the cause is lost ! Resurrection can never make 
amends for such a failure. 

" What does anti-Christ care for resurrection as 
long as he has foiled heaven at the vital point in the 
conflict ? The minister has brought us to the secret 
of our power and our life: it is Christ dwelling in us as 
our nature and our naturalness. No one can be either 
happy or strong with his own nature against him. 



TALKS AXD TESTIMONIES. 135 

11 This, then, is God's philosophy of making man 
morally strong and permanently happy. It's the con- 
formity of his heart to God in a way to secure the 
enforcement of man's own nature to conscience and 
righteousness. Hence the eternal happiness of saints 
rests on the eternal naturalness of holiness. 

"The Christian, being 'endowed with a foreign 
nature, and acting from the impulses of that nature, 
may be expected to live a superhuman life ; so that 
when the world laughs, the Christian may be in heavi- 
ness and sorrow of heart. On the other hand, when 
the world's great sorrow and wringing of hands 
begin, there the Christian's laugh is heard. 

"By the way, Mr. President, you have just 
cautioned us against levity. It 's right that you did ; 
for there is a surface grin that goes for laugh. It 's 
only the frolicsomeness of nerves and muscles, and is 
all born of the flesh. It belongs to the world, but 
has no right here. But the real laugh of soul is 
kingdom-born — it's joy within — the dance of soul — 
the clap of hands, which angels throng to hear. It 
is true, the world has stolen this laugh, in name and 
appearance, without knowing what to do with the 
thing itself. 

"Hence, when joy in Zion becomes unspeakable 
and full of glory, the world thinks it's their kind of 
glee and mirthfulness. And how can they guess 
nearer, being strangers to such an experience ? How 
little did the neighbors of Abraham comprehend his 
joyfulness when, by special revelation, he saw this 
10 



136 OAKINGTON. 

day that we are now in ; though far and hazy his 
look, he saw it and was glad. We have more than 
catched his laugh ; or, more correctly, we participate 
in his J03'. Perhaps, in view of the world's igno- 
rance of this joy, which is unspeakable, we ought to 
suppress its manifestation somewhat, lest strangers 
mistake it for levity. 

11 He who is made partaker of the divine nature by 
being reborn of God, is more than man ! He is a 
problem too deep for human philosophy to fathom — 
a mystery too mysterious for the world's prediction. 

" When the tide of the wicked goes out, the tide 
of the Christian is coming in. So when the wicked 
are bereft of all things dear, and life sinks apace, 
with the forebodings of hell and eternity coming 
over the soul as thick darkness, it is then and there 
that this high-born, mysterious being, finds in his last 
sun-down the break of his hio-h eternal morn. Some 
even forestalling the King of Terrors, have fallen 
asleep in Jesus, a little before the time — that is, 
before the death time. They died of ecstacy. The 
King of Terrors is welcome to all his triumph over 
such subjects. 

" Praise Jesus Christ, who dwelleth in the heart of 
the Christian, for putting him where death can neither 
harm him, nor scare him, nor kill him. ; O death, 
where is thy sting, and where thy victory, boasting 
grave ? ' 

11 Look out for defeat — watch well thy sepulchered 
dust ; the hoarded boast of ages, when great Res- 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 137 

urrection shall topple thy proud monuments and 
empty thy silent empire clean of saintly dead. 

11 This, then, shall be the heritage of the saints, those 
who are living by the law of this second and holy 
nature; they shall not only live above the compre- 
hension of the world and die mysteriously happy, 
but they shall also have the infinite advantage of the 
resurrection to eternal life. 

" Before closing, I wish to speak of this work — 
this revival of primitive Methodism. On my way 
here, a stranger asked me where I supposed this 
movement would end? End? said I; it will end in 
millennium, and then it will not stop. This is the 
same old power, the same Christianity, that stirred 
the world one hundred years ago; yea more, this is 
that which shook Jerusalem and all Judea near two 
thousand years ago. 

" Well may we sing, 'This is the Old Ship Zion.' 
I see she is headed right (to keep up the figure) for 
a voyage around the world — it's bound to stir the 
stagnation of every sea, belting the globe with the 
wake of life. This is of God and not of man, and if 
it is not over-manned, it must go forward. And 
there are not enough backsliden ministers, doctors, 
professors, or any others, to stop this work. If it is 
essentially injured, it will be by its friends. 

"This is no new religion — it's not a new creation ; 
it's a development, or a revival of an old work. 
This is what I joined forty-eight years since, and it's 
nothing else. And shall I apologize for being a 



138 OAKINGTON. 

Methodist in the Methodist Episcopal Church at this 
late clay. Then let all her ordained ministers ask 
pardon of the world, for ever having said that they 
were groaning after this great salvation. 

" Now, lest I should be mistaken for a bigot in 
speaking so much of my own-ism, I wish to say that 
my Christian fellowship rests not on theoretical 
agreement, but on the fact of experimental Chris- 
tianity. It's a small charity that demands of my 
neighbor that he shall agree with me in non-essentials 
as the condition of my loving him as a Christian. If 
I cannot love a Christian because he is a Christian, and 
that alone, without requiring that my eyes and ears 
shall be pleased with him, my taste and human love 
may be faultless, but my Christian love is too weak 
for the diversities of fallen man. 

" I love Presbyterians, not because some are almost 
Methodists, but for a better reason; so of the Baptists 
and the Dr. Tyng kind of Episcopalians, and all 
others, black or white, for this one all-important 
reason, that they love our Lord Jesus Christ." 

A Talk on Conseckation.* 
I wish so to speak, that old original self shall gain 
no advantage from my talk. 

Though small and feeble, I might have amounted 
to something in God's hands, for the good of the 
w^orld, if I had consented from the first to have gone 
into God's hands without reserve. If I had with a 

♦Reported for the Earnest Christian. 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 139 

godly sincerity taken the Word and Spirit for my 
rule of being and doing, instead of looking to the 
popular sentiment of the Church in so many matters. 
If in my faith I had held the Lord responsible, not 
only for the results, but also for my reputation and 
good appointments, as He has promised, how much of 
anxiety, disgust and disappointment would have been 
saved to this poor mortal; and these are the least of 
the bad effects of trying to improve the Lord's plan. 

But no: in common with some others (not to say 
many), for years and years I lived and acted as though 
it were not safe for one who thought much of him- 
self — of his good sense and refined taste, to come 
under the full control of the Infinite one — that the 
Lord was so reckless of human greatness and human 
wisdom, that one's reputation would not be safe, at 
least with the first families, in such hands. 

So, to be safe and sure, I kept a close look-out on 
the probable course or plan of my religious duties 
(for it was my purpose to obey the Lord), but when 
I found the Word and Spirit required of me, in a 
way that seemed rather spendthrift of one's reputa- 
tion for good sense and intelligent religion, as the 
spectators call it, I would just put in a proviso or 
modification of the plan. So after adjusting my 
course so as to guard personal rights, I cried to the 
Lord to come over into my plans and help me do my 
duty. So for years I prayed and prayed, and teased, 
and looked and longed for the Spirit to come over 
and make me efficient in my work. 



140 OAK1NGTON, 

Now this was not hypocritical in me, neither was it 
imputed so wicked as it now appears. 

The fact is, I was fooled — was self-deceived; yes, 
friends, the world and self have played some shrewd 
games on me, but by the grace of God I hope they 
are played out. 

Probably my sins in the matter may be traced to a 
want of faith in God's remedy for the cure of the 
world. Then as a fruit of this unbelief, feeling and 
acting on the supposition that at least some of the 
views of religion set forth in the Bible are too old. 
fashioned for this state of society. So you see I had 
the work on hand of educating the All- Wise in 
modern views of religion. 

When simplified, the sin consists in being in bond- 
age to the friendship of the world, which is enmity 
against God; fix it up as we may, with education, 
morals, baptism, beads, feathers and Grecian bend, 
still it will be enmity against God, and that minister 
who dare be true to God will stir it up; so count 
your cost, ye hoty embassadors ! 

My hearers are ready to inquire, how did you 
change your position in these matters ? I just packed 
up my effects and went over to the Lord's side, and 
whatever refused to go, or went muttering, I left 
behind, with a vow never to look or long after it 
again. To tell the truth about it, I went rather 
empty-handed, leaving a deal of lumber behind. All 
this I counted loss for Christ. 

You say, how do you view your duty now ? As a 



TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 141 

theory or system, I look upon Christianity as none of 
my concern. I never invented it — am not responsible 
for its origin or fashion. Evidently it is a root out 
of dry ground — no beauty in it that an outsider 
should desire it. It is a stone of great stumbling, 
except to obedience, but that is nothing to me. But 
what I am ashamed of now is, that I was ever 
ashamed of Christ, either dead or alive — either in the 
mock robes, on the cross, or on the Mount of trans- 
figuration — that my foolish heart ever felt obligated 
to so fix up and dress up the uncomeliness of God's 
salvation, that a sinful soul should call it beautiful* 
I say it plainly, friends, this looks bad to me now; it 
is atheism, not by design, but it is a necessity of 
unbelief. Unbelief brings us so into bondage to the 
tastes and opinions of men, that we dare not tell the 
whole truth in the spirit of truth. 

To consecrate property, time and talents to tlie 
cause, is a small thing, when compared to giving up 
our own way of doing it. We may go through 
quite a catalogue of articles without touching the dear 
thing of our life. With one proviso, refined depravity 
can flourish around God's altar as well as anywhere. 
Yes, man-show has even been seen to loom high over 
the Cross, with Jesus dying far below the humani 
dignitary. We might speak of giving up reputation, 
preference or self-pleasure — preconceived notions of 
the manner of doing duty, of the manner of the 
working of the Holy Ghost, etc. But the abandon- 
ment of i", myself, over to God, without one proviso, 



142 OAKrNGTON. 

takes all the catalogues with it. This is the casting 
the strong man out of the house, when his goods 
follow as a necessity. 

As a brother remarked, lam anti-Rum, anti- Mason, 
anti-Slavery and anti-Tobacco — still my mind is dark. 
Brother, stamp your feet hard and say anti-Self, and 
the strong hold of depravity shall give way. 

O yes, consecration or sanctification would be quite 
popular, since it so augments our moral power and 
religious gifts, lifting us out of little servile self 
into holy daring; if the Lord would only allow us 
to pass over the disagreeables, taking us through on 
a magnificent plan, so that the world should say of 
us, There goes an intelligent and reasonable Christian. 
No doubt he is holy, but too much of a gentleman to 
say much about it. He is none of your fanatical, 
vulgar sort of men, who preach about theaters, danc- 
ing, jewelry and feathers, freemasonry and tobacco, 
and all that sort of stuff. He preaches up the virtues 
of religion, without intruding himself into the per- 
sonal rights of others. Then he talks so beautiful 
about heaven, and that our friends are waiting for us. 
. O, he is such a beautiful man ; we must all go to hear 
him next Sunday night, for the fashionable class 
attend his church. It is agreeable, no doubt, to all, 
to be thus esteemed ; that is, if our sense of responsi- 
bility is not against the pleasure. 

But who am I, or my father's house, that the list of 
hard names with which the saints of all ages have 
been branded, should end with me, and just here 



TALKS AKD TESTIMONIES. 143 

with my beautiful self should the greetings from the 
market begin ? 

Did the vow of my consecration stipulate for per- 
fection in intellect and judgment? 

Was this the proviso in offering myself to God, 
that he should carry me clear of inconsistencies, dis- 
advantages and unloveliness in the estimation of a 
vain world ? 

What is my importance, that I should claim a 
favoritism with God, above Christ or Paul, with all 
the martyred hosts of the glorified ? 

No ! No ! Put me among those whose holiness 
was so positive as to excite the hate of badness. Put 
me into the way the holy prophets went, though 
marked with sandals and blood. 

Yes, I covet brotherhood with the old sheepskin 
wearers, who, from the scorn of men and the dens of 
earth, went up into the heaven of u Come ye blessed 
of my Father." 



144 CANTON. 



OAKTOF. 



PURITY THE CONDITION OF SEEING GOD. 



Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. — Matt. 5 : 8. 

Whether Christ designed to teach the order of the 
spiritual processes in this chapter, we cannot say. 
My text, however, marks the highest degree of all 
the states previously spoken of, and, no doubt, should 
be considered the completion of the Christian charac- 
ter, at least on the negative side. 

For no character can be considered complete, in the 
spiritual sense, short of a restoration to the essential 
likeness of God, in which man was at first created ; 
which likeness consisted in righteousness and true 
holiness. In this rising scale of goodness, we note 
six degrees or steps, from poverty of spirit, which 
must be the beginning of salvation to this climax 
state of purity of heart. 

The text will justify the two following proposi- 
tions, viz.: 

First — What is implied in seeing God. 

Second — Wherein is purity essential, as the condi- 
tion of this result. 



PURITY THE CONDITION OF SEEING GOD. 145 

This passage is one of frequent use by ministers as 
a text for a sermon ; some of whom say they have 
never satisfied themselves in its use ; neither have 
they been satisfied with others. 

Perhaps some of our failures to comprehend this 
passage, have commenced with the result of purity, 
viz.: " Seeing God," which is made the ground of 
the blessedness spoken of in the text. 

With some, at least, seeing God, means to be im- 
pressed with a sense of God in his creations and 
providences, and in his word. 

This is altogether too small a meaning. Suppose 
we call it perceive — appreciate — know — experience — 
enjoy. 

I apprehend that the secret and key of the text 
will be found in the relation of purity to this high 
knowledge of God. 

We say we know a fish, but we do not ; we only 
see certain appearances of the fish. We know noth- 
ing of his instincts — his sufferings and happiness. 
Neither is it possible for us to see a fish, in the full 
sense of the word, except by becoming a fish. We 
cannot appreciate any nature, nor any condition, of 
which w r e have had no experience. 

Experience is essential in all cases and in all places, 
to intelligent sympathy. 

Take an illustration from common life. You visit 
the house of mourning, where but yesterday the 
prattle of the innocent was heard. You say, I feel 
sorry for that mother. That is true, but it 7 s sorrow 



146 CANTON. 

only at a guess. You can never comprehend that 
afflicted heart till you become a mother, with a dead 
child in your house. 

I see my neighbor dying, but do I really know his 
present views and experiences in this last hour of 
intense existence — is that what I mean ? 

Who can know the pain or the bliss of dying, but 
he who dies ? 

I once saw a man two miles above the earth. I 
tried to put myself with him, just to see how this 
lower world appeared ; but my imagination failed to 
take me half way there. I can only know that man's 
condition by actually going where he is. 

I see a hungry man eat — I see him in the full sense. 
I not only see his motions or his shadow on the wall. 
I know his hunger and his relish of food ; can explain 
his experience — but only to one who has been hungry. 
I partly eat with him through sympathy, and enjoy 
it, for I have been there. 

These are faint illustrations of that greater necessity 
of resembling God as the condition of seeing him, or 
of knowing him. 

This is the secret of the text, and this the second 
idea of the sermon, viz. : Wherein is purity essential 
as the condition of seeing God. The assertion of the 
text rests on the philosophical law of assimilation. 

If you can be assimilated to the condition of a 
bereft mother, you shall see or know her bereave- 
ment. If you can be transformed into the nature and 
habits of a fish, you shall know a fish, and enjoy the 



PURITY THE CONDITION OF SEEING GOD. 147 

life of a fish ; aud this is the only possible way by 
which you can attain to such knowledge. This holds 
equally true in the spiritual world. The chasm 
between man and fish is no broader than that between 
saiut and sinner ; it 's only on the other side of their 
nature. No one can know, or so much as guess, the 
experiences of a penitent, even, except he has been 
penitent. What then shall we do before the broad 
break between fallen man and the holy God? How 
can these two diverse natures be brought into sympa- 
thetic relation ? 

The philosophy of this w T ondrous harmony is 
referred to in the text. 

Are my hearers ready to ask, what all this has to 
do with purity ? Is it not in this, that holiness being 
the most essential and characteristic attribute of the 
divine nature, it stands for that nature ? Again, is not 
holiness the strongest point of resemblance between 
a finite and the Infinite ? For, according to the Scrip- 
tures, there is no aspect, state or condition, in which 
God and man so resemble father and child, as w r hen 
viewed in their holiness. 

Holiness, then, is the point where God and man 
touch, and resemble, and symyathize, and commune, as 
at no other ! 

This is the vital point of assimilation, where finite 
blends with Infinite ! Sanctification through the blood 
of the everlasting covenant is the assimilative process 
and power by which soul is changed from dark to 
light — from glory to glory, into the same image ! 



148 CANTON. 

But let us mark this, my brethren, that this assimi- 
lation is mysteriously deep and radical. No super- 
ficial conformity to external religion will avail here. 
It's not whitening the spots of the leopard that 
unleopards him. Neither is it having all knowledge, 
and understanding all nrysteries, and even giving our 
body to be burned; this is not holiness. But did not 
the Apostles suffer for the truth? Are we not like 
them when we do as they did? Let us see: to refer 
to an illustration used on another occasion. 

Dr. Bangs was a great and good man ; then over 
and above all that, he carried his head on one side. 

Some young ministers unconscious 1 ^ tipped their 
heads on one side ; but did that make them into the 
likeness of great Dr. Bangs? Is the manner of carry- 
ing one's head the matter and make of the man? 

Two girls, thought to be one in spirit and disposi- 
tion, just by being one in appearance — being almost 
twins in their physical formation, they were often 
taken one for the other. The check and stripe, the 
cut and fit of their clothing must agree precisely; but 
when the irritations and provocations came on, which 
stirred the inner self, they found old nature's diversi- 
ties too much for the outside sameness of color. 

Your manners are much like your mother's ; does 
that make you like her? They say I resemble my 
mother, have some of the music of her nature, weep 
and laugh somewhat as she did. Do these character- 
istics make me like her? Nay ! but I am like her. 

Now, what is the mystery of this persistent, per- 



PURITY THE CONDITION OF SEEING GOD, 149 

petual sameness? I am like my mother by her inborn 
nature ! She rules in me to-day — is living her second 
life in her child. 

Christ is living his third life in the saints of this 
late period! " Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me " ! See Bible. How is it, then, 
that we are to be assimilated to the likeness of the 
Infinite, but by this same deep philosophy, of the 
inborn nature of God — of being made partakers of 
the Divine nature : giving to this reborn soul the 
power and happiness of a second naturalness ! 

The philosophy of all happiness, whether literal or 
spiritual, is in the fact of its naturalness. Hence, if 
we would enjoy God we must be like him in nature ; 
holiness is his essential character. 

Our only hope of reaching the similitude of the 
Supreme is in the fact that a small thing may be pure, 
as well as that which is great. A finite may be holy 
as a finite, even as the Infinite is holy as the Infinite. 
There is not enough of us to resemble Omnipotence, 
but we are large enough to be good, which is of more 
importance to us and the w T orld. Are not these views 
correct ? Was not man originally created up to this 
same similitude ? 

Was not holiness the precise point at which creation 
aimed at first? And is it not the strongest marked 
resemblance to the Divine character ? May we not 
then expect the greatest enjoyment in God's holiness, 
since this is the strongest point of resemblance and 
sympathy ? What a reflection this, on what is called 



150 CANTON. 

natural religion, in which men profess so much hap- 
piness in nature and nature's God, while they regret 
redemption and the redeeming God ! Hence the 
caution of Christ : Ye believe in God ? Believe 
also in Me* As much as to say : Faith in God as the 
great first cause, is an inadequate belief for the 
fallen race. 

Then the belief in God which does not lead to 
faith in Christ is spurious, if it is not dishonest. 

In rejecting Christ we reject God. Yea, more ; 
not to believe in Christ is to make Gocl a liar, because 
ye believe not the record God gave of his Son. 

If we know God at all, as the Jehovah of the Old 
Testament, it must be at a great distance, except we 
see Him and his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 
His natural attributes are too far beyond us. 

How can a being who is of but yesterday, appre- 
ciate eternity past, which had no beginning? 

But when the Lord's Christ stepped from behind 
great everlasting into time, and mysterious incarnation, 
foretold the Gocl in flesh, the Invisible came within 
the scope of spiritual vision. 

We see — we know — we enjoy God in Christ. 

How can puny man, who fades as a leaf, be put 
into sympathy with Omnipotence ? Or how this 
delicate harp of a thousand strings be made to accord 
with Jehovah's rugged thunder, when every nerve 
and sensibility recoils under the mighty crash ? 
What can Creator do with man, in this department of 
his stupendous works? But when we come to the 



PURITY THE CONDITION OF SEEING GOD. 151 

redeeming God. where the terribleness and the consum- 
ing lire of Jehovah is concealed, we dare approach — 
we dare approach the Man of Sorrows, and of prayers, 
and of tears, coming by the way of Bethlehem, the 
Xazarine of prophesy, the real brother of man. 

Here, in the department of redemption, saints are 
brought into so intimate relationship with the Trinity 
as to be denominated laborers together with God. It 
is here that we come into fellowship with the Divine, 
in his Bufferings and afflictions, some of which are yet 
behind, it is said, reserved for saints to fill out. who 
are called the body of Christ. 

Does a stranger object to this humiliation as being 
derogatory to the dignity of the Supreme Being? 
So thought the ancient Greeks, so says the wisdom of 
the world. But, in the estimation of pure spirits, 
redemption reveals the highest ^lorv j so much so, 
that the greatest and most lasting revenue that has or 
that ever will accrue to the upper throne, shall be 
through the Man of Sorrows and of grief ! Hark ! to 
the doxology of ages ! "Unto Him be glory in the 
Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world 
without end " ! And all the ransomed hosts respond, 
Amen ! For the redeemed multitudes can never allow 
the Jesus of Jehovah to become obsolete. 

Even the barn and manger of Bethlehem are anions 
the immortalized memorials of a poverty for our 
sakes. more destitute than fell to the lot of birds and 
foxes — while the by-words, the slang words and 
nicknames of the warmer thronof. excite our reverence 
11 ^ 



152 CANTON. 

for a condescension and love, which could endure such 
contradiction of sinners against himself. 

It is here, in wondrous redemption, that the pure 
in heart see God and enjoy God. They glory in this 
condescension, for they have it in themselves to some 
extent; they see God in this meekness and pity — in 
Christ's separateness from sinners, though he mingled 
with them; his hatred of sin they understand now. 
For they never knew the manner nor the meaning of 
God's wrath, till they felt the reaction of holiness in 
themselves against sin — till the frown of inflexible 
rectitude went out from themselves against iniquity; 
then it was that the}' had. in their measure, a concep- 
tion of God's wrath. Is it absolutely essential to my 
everlasting well-being, that I enjoy God? If so, is it 
essential that I am put into holy accord and fellow- 
ship with Him by being made like Him in holiness, 
as the only possible condition of happiness in Him ? 

Brethren, there is a necessity for holiness near at 
home — it's in our own nature. Or, to make the argu* 
ment sure w r ilh unbelievers, I will say there is a 
necessity in the wants of our own being, for something 
which has never j^et been found in all the realm of 
nature. So far from finding full satisfaction in these 
things, many fail even to prevent miseiy. With all 
the w r orld before them — with the unrestrained grati- 
fication of low wants and passions, they so utterly 
fail of meeting the great want of their being, as to 
desire death rather than live in a world so empty of 
good to them. Hence the suicide ! 



PURITY THE CONDITION OF SEEING GOD. 153 

As if there were one chance left — one forlorn hope 
from misery — they abandon time for the experiment 
of eternity. But O. the defeat ! 

Who, in this life, may speak of the unmitigated 
disappointment which awaits them ? 

After having cleft matter from mind, they are made 
to stand before the great immortal of themselves ; 
which refuses to die. What can they do next ? 

What can they do, when they find that their great 
misery has evaded the fatal blow, with murder ended ! 
Here they stand, hopeless and distracted ! Having des- 
pised God's method of human happiness, for their own 
inventions on themselves, they are left at last, con- 
fronted with an unmurderable soul and an unmurdera- 
ble misery, and vet onlv in the inornino* of their eternity. 

But let us come to the most favorable cases — such 
as are found all about us — such as are here to-day — 
those for whom the world is doing its utmost. 

Friends, will you be honest with yourselves, while 
I propose a few questions ? 

Do you not, in the thoughtful hour, almost see 
through your bright prospects and exciting hopes, to 
where all is blank and barren ? 

Do you not, at times, apprehend a failure in the 
resources of carnal pleasure? That this world of 
temporal good may sooner or later be found inade- 
quate to the ever-expanding capacities and increasing 
wants of your being ? Have not many present already 
gone half through the catalogue of this life's pleasures, 
never to return to them a^ain ? 



154 CANTON. 

Can you not see that you have outgrown many of 
the delights which once thrilled your little self? So 
it's destined to be, to the end of all things ; till, hav- 
ing tried over and over again the best expedients, 
and drank at the scanty rill of the world's last 
pleasure to no purpose, you shall adopt the lament 
of generations gone : U I have no pleasure in them ! " 

From the history of cloyed pleasures, find your 
data for estimating what 's to come. 

This is my argument of necessity for happiness 
in God. 

If I may speak of my ow r n experience in these 
things, it w T ill only corroborate the history of 
humanity in every age. I know about what the 
world can do — about how far it can 0*0 in reaching 
my necessities. Have no confidence in trying the 
old resources over again — have sought for bliss in 
glittering toys for the last time — never expect to 
drink at these fountains again, with the view of enter- 
taining my soul — have outgrown them all. 

Give me another world, or I am ruined ! 

I visit the garret of the old homestead, where 
crickets chirp, and cobw T ebs hang in fragments over 
the cast-aside playthings of childhood. 

With a feeling more painful than pleasing, I ask : 
Are these the little witcheries that once excited and 
thrilled this new-born existence ? 

Was I ever on a par with tops and pop-guns ? 

O, ye relics of mind-littleness — of small pleasure \ 
though innocent, you can never help me again. I 



PURITY THE CONDITION OF SEEING GOD. 155 

leave you to nothingness and to mildew ; leave you, 
not because of your harmfulness, but because of your 
nothingness. Pressed with the necessities of immortal 
want, I turn my back on all the outgrown past. I face 
the great future, and ask : Are you equal to this little 
growing infinite ? 

With empty hands stretching across the worlds in 
distress, I exclaim : Great Immortality ! Beatific 
Heaven ! I am coming to shake thy gates, for I 
must come through ! 

This is the demand of a nature in exile ! Bound- 
less soul is outgrowing finite pleasures and finite 
worlds ! * * * * Let the barriers give way 
into the holy infinitudes ! Give us scope ! 

O, ye little hemispheres of time, so beautiful for 
new-born children to play on and make their toys, 
but you are too low down, and too narrow and small 
for the immortal manhood of mind ! 

God's wondrous expedient, presented in the text, is 
our only hope, and God's great alternative for the 
lost. We may be restored to our forfeited relation 
and likeness to our God. 

Through holiness we may be made capable of the 
highest happiness known to men or angels, either in 
this world or the world to come. 

The infinitude of happiness in Christ shall be equal 
to the everlasting of our existence, so that if one 
infinite is equal to another infinite, we are safe against 
the dilemma and the distraction of being left far out 



156 CANTON. 

in mid-eternity, with the last mystery revealed and 
the last enjoyment gone. 

Nay ; our resources of happiness in the Trinity 
shall not only be commensurate with the wants of 
our immortal nature, but also co-extensive with the 
forever of our being. 

Happiness in full effulgence — in rich abundance, 
from ocean's fullness — in endless tidal flow — full up 
and abreast with eternal years ! 

No intermittent life in heaven — no break — no blank 
— no ebb in the flow of pure delights ; but mighty 
cycles, freighted with increasing heaven to the holy. 

Glory to God, for man's great hope in Jesus Christ ! 
through whom and by whom we are not only to be 
crucified to the world, and the world to us, but we 
may also be brought to life in God. 

By being reborn of the Spirit, we may be made 
partakers of the same nature, capable of the same 
happiness. A being thus exalted in his original crea- 
tion, a being thus endowed with capacities and with 
immortality, if he is ruined — if he goes to wreck, it 
must be a great ruin. 

Holiness is our safety against self-ruin. Although 
holiness itself is not the prominent idea of the text, 
it is sufficiently alluded to. to justify remarks on that 
point, did time permit. 



TALKS ASB TESTIMONIES. 157 

TALKS AND TESTIMONIES. 

The High Calling of Methodism. 
This now great Mission Church professed, from her 
infancy, to be called of God to spread scriptural holi- 
ness over the lands. This was the desideratum of 
Zion everywhere — this was the great need of the 
ministry. Massive churches, high steeples, great 
organs, imposing ceremonies, and priestly gowns, 
both white, black and spotted, were well provided 
for without another church. At least, the world was 
not particularly suffering for the want of man-show or 
pompousness. 

But O ! the spiritual destitution — the wide-spread 
desolation ; the ignorance of God and experimental 
godliness. How dark, thick, heavy darkness palled 
the most of the world. Yes, darkness condensed 
as it were, and authenticated by the ignorance of 
buried generations. Ignorance fossilized, petrified, 
and almost hoary with succession.. Truth, deep,, 
divine, unchangeable truth, under the peculiar name 
of Methodism, God launched upon the moral chaos 
of the world. On its banners were written this high 
profession : " Spread scriptural holiness over the 
lands ! " In this spiritual and vital sense of Method- 
ism, which is all we mean, often, in the use of the 
term, we find members of other churches in manjr 
instances, more methodistic than are many Methodists.. 
We have deeper fellowship w r ith them, for they are 
better Christians. God, through Methodism, either 



158 CANTON. 

in the hands of Methodists, or through others just as 
holy, has put the atonement to the test of saving man 
to the uttermost, in nearly all lands. And what has 
been the result ? The greatest and broadest moral 
achievement ever witnessed on this globe. 

This is an ism (in this vital sense) that will bear to 
run a little longer, without further doctoring. And 
now, after the demonstrations and the triumphs of 
one hundred years, for Methodists, but more espe- 
cially for Methodist ministers, after their professed 
groaning for this state, to oppose this exalted privi- 
lege of believers, and turn recreant and traitorous to 
their high calling: it's wicked. It's a crime against 
the atonement — it 's a crime against Wesley and the 
sainted dead of one hundred years ! To deny the 
sanctifieation of believers, at this late day, is to con- 
tradict the living and dying testimony of the millions 
who closed their life in this profession. 

Brethren, gorgeous churches, ample colleges, and 
high sounding organs, can never atone for the loss of 
holiness from the ministry. 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 159 



OTHER SELECTIONS. 



PART FIRST. 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON 
EARTH. 

I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world. — St. John, 17 : 15. 

These words occur in what may be called Christ's 
valedictory prayer, in which he presents to the Father 
his present and prospective Church down to the latest 
born of God. A prayer in which are treasured up 
the memorials of Christ's affection and solicitude for 
those who are to come after. 

So that in the coming years of dark tribulations, as 
the generations pass along their lonely pilgrimage, 
they may be cheered by the record of Christ's prayer 
in their behalf. 

For this is a prayer made forever audible to a 
believing soul, where more than the name of you and 
me and others are spoken. For there is a recognition 
more personal than names indicate. 

The text, although a negative petition, is the 
expression of a positive desire on the part of Christ, 
with respect to the disposition of his desciples. 



160 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

Our time ^vill be chiefly occupied with the justifi- 
cation of this prayer. 

I say justification, because without reference to the 
why and wherefore of this desire, it seems cold and 
unfatherly that Christ should wish to detain his 
disciples so far out of heaven as this waste wilder- 
ness world seems to be. 

Great reasons are demanded for the justification of 
this prayer, especially as there are strong arguments 
against it ; that is, against Christians remaining in 
this world so much as one day after their adoption 
into the heavenly family. 

That we may see both sides of this question, it may 
be w r ell first, to notice some objections to Christians 
remaining in this world. 

Brethren, the difference between continuing here 
and departing to our final rest, is vast — vast every 
way, but especially in the results. 

It is no indifferent matter w r hether a saint lives or 
dies. It is quite above an incident when God takes 
a believer out of this world, especially with the prayer 
of Christ against it. 

The reasons, both for living and for dying, are 
strong and no doubt changeable. Perhaps w T e have 
more to do in furnishing data for God's action than 
we are aware of. 

Brethren, there is a strait betwixt two, of long 
standing ; it is betwixt living or dying — between rest 
in heaven or labor and suffering on earth — it 's between 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 161 

safety at the right hand of the Father, or perils in 
this world of wrecks. 

St. Paul is not the last saint who has stood in the 
strait of these two existences, having a desire to 
depart and be with Christ, which is far better, on one 
hand, and pressed with the necessities of a wretched 
world on the other. 

The entire earthly existence of Christians seems to 
stand between the conflicting motives of two worlds. 
Christ, both in his life and in this prayer, tips the 
balances strong toward the earthly existence. As 
much as to say, the balance of the motive lies on that 
side, notwithstanding the danger attendant on this 
life. Which is the first objection against the prayer 
I propose to notice, viz. : 

This is a dangerous world to live in. 

That Christians are made in such a world as this, 
and especially when they are to be recovered from 
death and hell, by redemption, would seem to be 
triumph enough even for heaven. But when Christ 
deliberately, and on his knees, proposes to detain 
these converts on so bleak a brow as this world, where 
the night of hell darkens all the land, seems like 
putting eternal life to imminent peril. 

It is not only true that this is the only w r orld 
where souls are saved, but we speak a broader fact 
when we say, this is the only world where souls are 
ruined, All the spiritual wrecks take place on these 
coasts of time. 

O, my soul I look out on these thick ruins, then 



162 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

be on thy guard. Are any opiated with that very- 
agreeable doctrine, once in grace, always in grace ; 
once converted, never again unconverted ? 

I ask you to walk with me a little way on ancient 
Israel's route from Egypt to Canaan, I will take you 
along the line of the bone trail, where three and 
twenty thousand backsliders fell, as by one gleam of 
wrath, for their apostacy from truth and God. 

Let us ponder well these bleaching monuments of 
apostacy — monuments forever unburied while the 
Bible lives, as they are set up by Divine appointment 
for our admonition ; for they all drank of that 
spiritual rock that followed them : and that rock was 
Christ. 

The second argument in favor of the immediate 
removal of saints from this world of danger, is, that 
spiritual existence in this life is maintained at great 
expense, and only intermittent at the best. Here life 
and death struggle hard for the mastery. 

All that appertains to real soul-life must be im- 
ported from mother country. No holy influences — 
no redeeming agencies — no heavenly light, are native 
to this world. But on the contrary, all that wars 
with human felicity — all the malicious agencies — all 
the deceivableness of unrighteousness, confront the 
saints through all their pilgrimage ; hence the 
necessity of foreign interposition. 

Not only must the Holy Ghost abide with us for- 
ever, but angels are put into the same service. 
Human holiness and human happiness, through 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 163 

regeneration, is the greatest and grandest illustration 
of supernaturalness known to men or angels. 

For a depraved human being to be made holy, and 
walk through pollution on every hand, coming down 
to the grave unspotted from the world, with garments 
washed in the blood of the Lamb, is nothing less than 
a divine prodigy, and, no doubt, will stand forever 
as the wonder of God ! 

Then, to ask this being to be happy — to be happy 
against his own fallen nature — yea, against his two 
natures — to be happy against the whole course of 
this world — here, where storm after storm rolls dark 
o'er the way, driving desolation through the most 
sacred friendships — cutting down kindred dear, as by 
one swing of the scythe — where noble forms and 
youthful beauty are degraded to bones ; then to dust ! 

For such an one to be happy under such circum- 
stances, demands the perpetual interposition of heaven. 

O, saint divine ! Who can comprehend thy mys- 
terious being ? - 

Who, but the Redeeming God, could provide for 
the beginning of upper heaven, in such a vail of tears 
as this ? 

It is quite above human to ask man to rejoice with, 
joy unspeakable and full of glory, with mortality 
pressing hard upon him, and his own grave full in 
view ; or to ordain a path which shall shine more and 
more, when every step we take brings us nearer to 
death and corruption. These are some of God's 
mysterious parallels. 



164 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

Brethren, it is no accident that the key-note of the 
glorified state is struck near the gates of hell ! 

This is Christ's battle gained — this is the chagrin 
of Satan ; that this charnel house of ages is turned 
into the hosannah school of heaven ! 

The saints, then, are continued in this world at the 
expense of a perpetual miracle. 

O, that I could impress mj r self — that I could 
impress my hearers, not only with the expensiveness; 
but also with the sublimity — the Divine grandeur of 
holy existence on earth ! Do we realize the feet that 
spiritual happiness is maintained at a great disad- 
vantage in this life ? That all the tides run in an 
anti-heavenly direction ; that no circumstances can be 
trusted out of God's hands to help us on to final 
victory ? While all this is true, that heavenly hap- 
piness is maintained at arm's length disadvantage in 
this life, we will take another more precious truth 
home to our faith and to our hearts, viz.: that comfort 
in the Holy Ghost is more than the tribulations of 
the world. 

Evidently the kingdom of grace in this world is 
mysteriously and dangerously located. From neces- 
sity, the lines of God's sheep-fold run along hard by 
the world of woe, from which Satan, that wolf of the 
evening, comes up with stealthy tread on to the 
spiritual pasturage for lambs. 

This world is hell's field of ruin — the hunting 
grounds of roaring lions. And it's not a long look 
over into their still, dark lairs, out of which may be 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 165 

seen, both clay and night, the gleam of eyes that 
watch for prey. 

Yes, brethren, it is here, in the neighborhood of 
the outer darkness, where the wolf-paths wind and 
cross, and intersect — where devouring beasts come up 
to snuff atonement blood in prayer and praise. Even 
here has Jesus Christ set down his stakes — drawn his 
lines — stationed believers — built his altars — opened 
his censers, perfuming heaven with offerings made 
near the gates of hell ! Just here, on this bone-field 
of ages — this Golgotha world — has God ordained 
that Eternal Life and Upper Heaven shall begin. O, 
triumphant grace ! O, triumphant Saviour ! Put me 
in with thy victories. Who would not consent to 
linger here on a mission so sublime, so Christ-like? 

After these brief references to some objections to 
the prayer, arguments in its favor seem increasingly 
interesting. 

This is no stupid question for a saint to ask himself* 
viz. : Why am I here and not in heaven ? 

First — Perhaps one reason is, that you may grow 
old in the kingdom of grade. 

And shall we count it a small circumstance, brethren, 
that the children of God linger here till infirmities 
oppress them and gray hairs their temples adorn ? 

It is no trifle for young faith to contemplate, that 
Christ's religion is so mysteriously adapted to all the 
periods and stages of human existence. 

In this it transcends all the entertainments of the 
natural world. 



166 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

Here, from infancy to old age, we are turning from 
the toy and plaything of yesterday to the more manly 
pleasure of to-day, till, having drank at every rill 
and exhausted every invention, we sober down to 
death and destitution, adopting the lament of gener- 
ations gone : I have no pleasure in them. The out- 
grown and cast-aside toys found in the households of 
every land, are so many arguments in favor of 
Christianity. 

By all these years of childhood — by all these 
pleasures and playthings of the outgrown past, I say, 
Give me a happiness equal to my immortal growth ! 

Perhaps one reason for continuing saints so long in 
this world, is to make out a little illustration of the 
everlastino'ness of religion — of hosannahs that never 
languish ! 

Glory to God for the riches of grace ! Here are 
pleasures lasting as the mind. In Christ are treasured 
up an infinitude of holy delights, adapted to all the 
periods of life — equal to all the decades of time ; and 
all the cycles of eternity ! 

Were all the saints to die in youth, would be leav- 
ing the story of salvation but half told, with the 
suspicion everywhere, that Christ is only equal to 
humanity at its beginning, just when and where the 
mind is entertained with the cheapest and smallest 
pleasures. 

But when we come to the maturity of years, to the 
manhood, strength and capacity of mind, this child 
religion must fail. But to think of running the 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 167 

experiment clown to declining years, where we are 
apt to grow morose and avaricious and stupid, would 
only be to turn the lie on youthful religion. But 
Christ proposes, in the text, to put redemption to the 
test of years — to hold believers here till they grow 
gray in the tribulations of earth ! Grace is to be 
magnified in infirmities as well as in reproaches. 

Christ would have us know that the success of his 
cause, the triumph of his mission to earth, do not 
require that his disciples should die so soon. Christ 
is not particularly interested in hiding away his dis- 
ciples in some purgatory out of sight, then reporting 
their wonderful cure to his enemies. He chooses 
rather to make a full exhibit of these redeemed ones 
in daylight — to hold them in full view of his enemies — 
hold them with garments washed in the blood of the 
Lamb, till they grow gray in the gaze of earth and 
hell. 

Aged pilgrims ! take courage, for even your linger- 
ing here in holy trust shall heighten the glory of 
Christ. These deaf and blind, halt and maimed 
believers, standing on their crutches, as the weather- 
beaten exiles in this land of suffering, are God's chal- 
lenge to time, to summer and winter, to storm and 
night, to match the power of grace in saints. 

Christ is awake to the difficulties and dangers 
which beset his disciples here ; hence the prayer, 
"Keep them from the evil." Father, hold them 
steady against the buffetings of two worlds ; but pass 
them slowly along the frontiers of death and destruc- 
12 



168 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

tion. Let the kingdom of anti-Christ have a full 
and long view of these, my representatives, which I 
leave behind. 

Many a new and strange religion would have been 
in vogue to-day, had the zeal and enthusiasm of young 
disciples been adequate to their confirmation, but the 
poor things gave way under the pressure of time — 
they could not survive the test of growing old. 

But here is a religion which subordinates time to 
its service — augmenting by the lapse of years. 

Righteousness, truth and God can afford to wait — 
yes, wait when all the advantages of waiting seem to 
run to the account of the opposite side. 

As in the case of raising Lazarus, Christ waited 
four days for death to say, I am ready ; for it required 
four days to take his captive through the first and 
second ward to the inner fortress of putrefaction. 
But O, the defeat ! Christ, by bringing a live man 
from this stronghold — this putrefaction hold — turned 
the tally of four clays against death, doubling the 
triumph of resurrection ! 

The case of Paul at Cassarea, is another illustration 
of the power of truth in waiting. His enemies 
thought to wear out the unconquerable in him, by 
delay and bonds. They wielded two years and prison 
against faith and prayer ; as if to exhaust eternal life 
in a saint by the power of two years. But instead 
of abatement, he waxed so mighty in righteousness, 
making even kings to tremble, that they were glad 
to ship him off to Italy. 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 169 

So in the resurrection of our Saviour ; it was to 
the confusion of hell that it was delayed to the third 
day. That Christ's enemies had the advantage of a 
rocky tomb, with a great stone on its mouth, and 
Christ within — that they had death, three days and 
Roman soldiers, on their side, yet after all failed to 
keep the Nazarene (as they called him), dead. 

While in the apprehension of all, except the 
Infinite, to wait three days at such a time as this, 
must imperil the whole work of redemption. 

Yet almightiness waited — waited for days and 
nights to do their work — waited as if to educate the 
faith of the world in Omnipotence — waited till the 
pulse of hope stood still all the way up to heaven, as 
it seemed. But at last found a way of putting this 
greatest hazard ever known — this dolefulness of three 
days dead, into the glorification of resurrection ! 

These believers in Christ, and especially those who 
are the other side of noon in their pilgrimage, belong 
with the same problem ; I mean the problem of the 
waiting of God. The philosophy seems to be, the 
development or the production of greater obstacles 
for the all-sufficiency to overcome, that the world 
may come to know who the redeeming God is. 

Dejected, tempted ones, who are ready to say, I 
must give o'er, my heart will sink before these long 
years of tribulation. No, no ! How can it sink with 
such a prop ! Rather count it an honor that you have 
been selected and considered worthy to be put into 
God's processes where his glory is not only involved, 



170 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

but where tribulations shall augment your coming 
Heaven ! Count it an honor that you are so long 
trusted as representatives of Christ in this foreign 
country. We should recollect that it J s for the interest 
and glory of Christ to make a show of these redeemed 
ones amid the ruins of sin — to pass them around, 
amongst the dying and the dead — to mingle the songs 
of praise and triumph with the cursing and bitterness 
of this wicked world. 

Dearly beloved of the Lord, are you awake to the 
fact that your present relation to the moral universe 
is the most important that it ever will be ? A saint 
on earth lives for heaven in more than one sense ; not 
only for his own final happiness, but he lives for the 
entertainment and excitement of upper Heaven ; it ? s 
his prerogative to occasion the clapping of hands in 
the high mansions to-day. Perhaps I am extravagant 
in this view, but it seems to me more and more selfish 
and ignoble for one having a good capital on hand 
for laboring and suffering in behalf of Christ's cause, 
to desire to go off to heaven to see dear relatives, 
who are all right without us. That is, if they are in 
heaven at all. 

What ! shall such debtors to God as we are, talk of 
turning our backs on this battle-field of worlds, to go 
off to glory ? I tell you, friends, if it is not childish, 
it looks like a waste of spiritual capital. Then it 
seems that the old patriarchs and martyrs would ask 
us the first thing, why we left the work so soon ? 
And what could we say ? Could we say, because we 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 171 

had been beheaded for the name of Christ ? No ! but 
we wanted to rest ; hope they would not ask when we 
got tired. 

I tell you, brethren, God can't afford to take us to 
heaven yet, neither can we afford to go ; he can't 
afford such an outlay for so small returns as we have 
made. And, as to ourselves, it would probably be a 
calamity to every one of us were we to die to-day. 

Now we may sing to the angels to come with their 
snowy wings and bear us away, as much as we please, 
but they will not do it ; they understand the value of 
tried faith in this world, and the purposes of God in 
redemption, better than that. 

Old as I am, and half worn out, if I understand 
the spirit and purpose of my own soul, it would 
choose, were it possible, when this body fail to enter 
into another new and well-wrought frame, for another 
half century conflict in behalf of truth and religion. 
Yes, I have that opinion of my soul, that it would 
stand to its post here, by the grace of God, till two 
tabernacles should waste away and fall over its head, 
before it would say, come snowy wings and bear me 
away. But when the time of my departure does draw 
near, by all means come and sing this beautiful hymn 
to me ; but don't forestall God and old age both, by 
singing it to youthful workers in the vineyard. 

Brethren, I believe the gracious God can do better 
with this remnant of life and strength — can do better 
for us and with us — better for the great grand for- 
ever of our being, than to take us to heaven to-day. 



172 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

Going to heaven is not the most important thing in 
the universe, when a wrecked world lies near the mouth 
of hell, whose salvation is pending. What part coulcl 
we take in heaven for the redemption of this world ? 

Do you say, be happy and rest from our labors ? 
That seems like premature rest. We are not tired 
enough to make rest relish yet. 

Then it strikes me that I should be ashamed to go 
to heaven as I am — should look upon myself forever 
as a half failure. 

How must I look, and how must I feel, with the 
little I have suffered for the sake of Christ — with no 
more signs of having exhausted myself over a lost 
world, to come into the society of the beheaded 
witnesses of God, then to think of standing before 
the souls that cry beneath the altar ? 

Brethren, we will not give up the hope that the 
Holy Ghost is yet to supplement this weakness with 
a fuller impartation of himself, or at least, to put us 
into a more becoming attitude to enter the ranks of 
the glorified. 

Many years ago, my grandmother set apart one 
whole night to pray for her posterity. What a scene 
of holy transaction! What a memorable night at 
the old homestead, when that old-fashioned saint, 
seventy years of age, held the ear of heaven from 
eve till morn, for a blessing on her descendants ! The 
point is this : It has seemed, especially since my 
sickness, that her prayers were just reaching me. It 
has taken all this time to capacitate me for the great- 



WHY CHRISTIANS ABB DETAINED OX EARTH. 173 

ness of the answer, and it is being fulfilled more and 
more : at least I am conscious of a great good coming 
to me, which is not of my making. Did it not pay 
to carry that saint up to seventy years, for an all- 
light prayer ? 

Second. — Another reason for detaining believers 
here, may be. their perfection in holiness amid the 
ruins of sin. To take youg disciples to some inter- 
mediate station, somewhere between death and heaven, 
beyond the reach of temptation and the scrutiny of 
foes, for their full cure of sin and restoration to the 
Divine image, would be quite another thing in its 
bearing on the triumphs of redemption and the 
glory of God. 

The overcoming power — the mightiness of Christ 
to save, is seen in preserving believers holy amid 
pollution — in conforming the soul to the spirit and 
likeness of the heavenly in a world so unheavenly 
and depraved. Had we waited in the time of the 
rebellion for traitors to leave their strong-holds, before 
conquering them, it would have been a small glory. 
But we met the beast in his own lair. So Christ 
came into this very world to destroy the works of 
the devil. He conquers sin — death — hell, on their 
own ground — in the strongholds of ruin. 

It *s a fine invention of deceivers, especially in behalf 
of their pockets, to postpone the christianization, not 
to say the civilization of their dupes, till death takes 
them off out of sight, then for cash in hand, report 
their wonderful doings in purgatory. But Christ 



174 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

saves in full view ; then in the text proposes to hold 
them in full view, long enough to test the genuineness 
of the work. But the glory of the conquest is, that 
these redeemed ones are held to the Eedeemer by the 
charms of holiness, and held, too, amid the fiery 
darts — held, surrounded by the old carnal allurements 
and tempting associates. 

Here they stand to-day in holy panoply, the gazing 
stock of worlds, weathering the long years of suffer- 
ing and sighing in behalf of sinners lost — lingering 
memorials of the Garden and of the Crucifixion ! 

O, ye disciples of Christ, and especially you who 
feel so weak and worthless ; can you not be encour 
aged and inspired by these great truths ? Can you 
not see somewhat the meaning of holy human exist- 
ence on earth ? Can you not see how God is excit- 
ing the three worlds through your faith and holiness ? 
And now what is the sum of all this ? What is the 
interpretation of Christ's prayer but this, viz.: Dis- 
ciples, you cannot stand in this breach but once; now 
tarry long, work hard, suffer patiently, make to your- 
selves a great and rich immortality. 

My afflictions are not at all filled out yet ; linger a 
little longer where they weep and pray and suffer, 
and triumph in my name. We will keep the record ; 
we '11 bottle all your tears and count your groans, and 
by-and-by, we will wipe your face clean of dust, and 
sweat and tears ; take you off from your knees, lift 
your head up into the bright forever, and say the 
days of thy mourning are ended ! 






■\YHY CHRISTIANS AEE DETAINED ON EAETH. 175 



PART SECOND. 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON 
EARTH. 

I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world. — St. John, 17 : 15. 

It is no ordinary experience for one to realize that 
his lingering here yesterday, to-day, and all along 
the past years, is in answer to the prayer of Christ. 
From which w r e learn that the staying of Christians 
on earth is no accident, and it's quite above an inci- 
dent. No incident or mere circumstance can justify 
the detention of believers so long out of heaven ; it 
is not enough to say it is in answer to the prayer of 
the great Eedeemer, for His prayer has a reason. 
The question of more thrilling interest to us to-day, 
is, why Christ should thus pray. A full answer to 
this question must interpret God's design in the 
earthly existence of Christians. In another sermon, 
I have spoken of two agruments supposed to justify 
the petition of the text. In this I come to the 

Third — Another reason for prolonging the earthly 
existence of Christ's disciples, and perhaps the greatest 
of all, may be found in their relation to the salvation 
of the world. 

The fact that all Christians were once depraved 



176 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

sinners — the children of wrath, even as others, gives 
them a veiy intimate and vital relation to the lost. 
For this reason, with others, the Christian's position 
on earth becomes not only a post of honor, but one 
of great responsibility. 

But while we speak of honor, for it is a great honor 
to be counted workers together with God — to be put 
into a system along with Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 
for the redemption of the world. It may be well to 
humble ourselves by the recollection that once we 
were running with the wicked in the same excess of 
riot, speaking evil of things we knew not. 

With respect to Christian responsibility, to simplify 
the subject to the fewest words, I will say this : The 
seat and center of responsibility in general, is where 
results are produced or controlled. 

The responsibility of a human agent may be esti- 
mated first, by the power entrusted to him. I mean 
cause-power — the ability to produce effects; and 
second, by the extent of those effects. 

The engineer on the railroad has the disposal of a 
cause equal to the most appalling results, even the 
sudden death of the hundreds of passengers who 
have committed their life into his hands. So of him 
w r ho controls the helm of a ship. 

The time was when General Grant carried in his 
hands, to a fearful extent, the honor, resources and 
soldiery of this government ; hence the responsibility 
of the position. 

But what shall we say of the responsibility of these 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 177 

children of the Most High, who go out in the name 
of their Father, entrusted with the influences of 
heaven, and, in a qualified sense, wield the power 
of God ? 

Going out, not on their own charges, or at their own 
risk, but on the authority of the upper throne, backed 
up with a Father's promise, and if need be, by 
Jehovah's thunder ! Then the extent of their actings 
— the broad ransre of their influence : fanning on 
after death, even. But who shall tell the full mean- 
ing of him, whose acts strike off into the great here- 
after ! It is said, that when a man lifts his hand 
to his head, a vibration is sent to the stars. But 
this is doubtful, as the atmosphere extends only forty- 
five miles that way. But there is an effect more than 
this, which is not doubtful. He who leads a trans- 
gressor to repentance, sends a thrill of joy rippling 
through the immortal ranks to the other side of 
eternity ! He who converts a sinner from the error of 
his way, adds another to the elect of God — changing 
the count of life and death ! Suppose I am a Chris- 
tian. Am I self-erected ? Did I make my own good- 
ness ? Nay. The holy influences of generations are 
represented in me. I am a little swell of a tidal 
wave which dates back in my own family two hundred 
years : coming all the way through without one break 
in the swell : And here it is in this unworthy being : 
who ought to be humbled that he has added no more 
momentum to this holy flow. 
These words which we so fluently sing, are great 



178 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

with meaning, viz.: For me my elder brethren stay: 
Yes, the staying of Abraham — Isaac — Jacob — Daniel 
— Anna, the prophetess — Susan and Paul. The 
stopping — lingering — waiting all along this side, has 
been in reference to others. And here they are all 
about us : those who are almost to the margin come, 
and yet they stay — stay that youthful disciples may 
have a view of God, triumphing in old age — stay to 
develop some rare phase of redeeming grace under 
the extremes of life. 

Brethren, do you ask yourselves, at times, such 
questions as these ? 

Why do the stars their courses keep, and all nature 
stand ? Why did God the Son come to this world 
and die ? And why am I here, and not in heaven 
to-day ? Then did it ever occur to you that the 
answer to these diversified questions is but one ? viz. : 
The redemption of lost men. 

And does your faith— does the aim of your life 
hold true to this great answer ? 

Small and unworthy as you may feel yourselves to 
be, you are detained here, in this region and shadow 
of death, for the loftiest purpose of eternity ! You 
are on the same errand with the incarnation, with the 
resurrection, and these revolving worlds ! For there 
is only one leading idea occupying the universe at 
present, and Christians stand closer to that idea — I 
mean the salvation of the world — than any other 
created thing or being. 

Believers are the only visible agents left in this 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 179 

conflict for souls ; and they are left here as God's 
legates, embassadors, representatives — as Christ's 
body, through which the Spirit prays and groans and 
triumphs ! Pushed out into the darkness of this 
world, and held out on this brow of ruin, at the 
expense of a perpetual miracle and the risk of their 
own souls, to do business for their Lord in the gates 
of death, making their high commission known as on 
the threshold of ruin. 

A saint of the Lord takes rank in the redemptive 
system, above the moon and stars, yea, above angels. 
He is experimentally and sympathetically related both 
with life and death, with the Eedeemer and the lost. 
By his experience of sin and death on one hand, and his 
experience of Divine life on the other, he touches 
both extremes at once. 

But no foreign party — no angel in heaven — no 
earthly power, is adequate to stand in this breach — 
this life-league in behalf of the dead. Angels, high 
and holy beings, they go forth as ministering spirits, 
all alive to the same interest ; but they can never take 
the position of a saint between life and death. They 
are mostly deficient on the sin and ruin side of the 
case — have never felt the pains of hell, and there 
seems no way of relating them with sinners. 

Though more than half worn out, I could hardly 
consent to exchange positions with Gabriel to-day. 
I could not afford to be divorced from the human 
side of me ; then to think of ungirding my armor in 
sight of the dying, and turn my back on this field of 



180 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

human woe. No ! not even for a seat with the Sons 
of the Morning. 

I said angels were alive to our interest. Look at 
Lazarus ; though spurned of men, and left to the 
pity of dogs, he had angels to wait on him. Never 
did servants so diverse meet on the same errand 
before. Dogs and angels both agreed to help a saint 
from one world to another. 

I once visited the marble pile which stands over 
the grave of a young lady, near Brooklyn. She was 
so injured in returning from a ball, that she soon died. 
Either by her direction, or of her friends, all her 
fortune, ten or twenty thousand dollars, was expended 
in this monument. And there it stands, the still, cold 
watcher of corruption, but bones and monument are 
going to dust. Though written in stone, her name 
grows dim in the waste of time ; while he who spends 
his means or himself for soul welfare, is chiseling his 
name for immortality. The monuments of faith and 
works of holiness here, are made for eternal years. 

Not only monuments, but titles here, flatter the 
pride of poor humanity, to be called of men, Rabbi, 
though spoken with mortal lips, with the suspicion 
that one-half its meaning is hypocritical. The world's 
great titles of fashionable, great, aristocratic, rich, 
palace, mansion, smart, handsome — what pompous 
words are these for the childhood state of our being; 
but when the fashion of eternity comes into vogue, 
hoiv the estimates must change. Then what of 
earthly titles ; what of marble monuments, when we 



WHY CHRISTIANS AEE DETAINED OX EARTH. 181 

stand before the two greatest words of time or 
eternity ? Come ye blessed ! Depart ye cursed ! 
Words which begin our long forever ! Look at her, 
whose name once stood fair on the Book of Life, with 
her back turned on the world's follies, her voice of 
prayer and praise heard with the holy ; her heavenly 
look and meek demeanor, which are a reproof to pride 
and worldliness. But alas, alas ! she threw up a 
position in the kingdom which ranked above angels ; 
turned her face to the world, her back to Christ, and 
descended to the calling of a doll ; she laid her crown 
of immortal honor in the dust, for the title of hand- 
some. For this precarious title, she has bartered 
away her hope of heaven. 

While it might be no particular advantage to 
heaven for saints to enter there, the removal of a 
mature Christian, from the field of conflict here, is a 
dead loss to the world ; it is taking so much moral 
power from the disciplined ranks. So when a young 
disciple dies, another hope of Zion and of angels is 
blighted — blighted for the working world, but made 
safe to heaven. Let no one suppose, because the 
Christian's mission is so sublime and unearthly, that 
it must be confined to ministers, officials, and a few 
talented ones in the church. Xo, that is human 
wisdom. Divine wisdom is seen in selecting foolish 
things to confound the mighty, and things that are 
not, to bring to naught things that are. 

There is a place in these ranks for all grades and 
capacities of intellect, from the least to the greatest. 



182 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

Especially are the arrangements ample for the 
employment of the small instrumentalities ; and this 
is well, as there are two of the commonalty to one of 
the great, either in the church or the world. It's 
only one out of three that's endowed with five 
talents. So let the small capacities take courage, as 
there are niches in the kingdom of grace waiting for 
thee, thou humble one, to fill. 

And yet I notice the ranks look the thinnest where 
the smaller work is to be performed, while the great 
work is over-manned ; the great ones have to go three 
and four abreast to get them all in. I notice some 
are advertising for calls to lecture — out of work. 

Then, if there is a great, fashionable church to be sup- 
plied with a new minister, we hear more talk of candi- 
dates for the place than of all the little places in the con- 
ference. No one is to be blamed for it ; it's the result 
of having more great men than there are great places. 

So when we come to the laity, we find those who 
will do their duty in prayer and exhortation, to the 
advantage of the cause — they are efficient here, while 
there are other works needed which seem neglected. 
Perhaps a majority in every church excuse themselves 
from public duties on the ground of incompetency. 
Such are pitied less for being small, than blamed for 
neglecting small work — that is, small in the eyes of 
the world. 

Does it require great gifts for women to adorn 
themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness — 
to come out from the world and be separate ? 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 183 

My friends, it 's not doing all the work that 's to be 
done in this wicked world, to interpret the prophe- 
cies and explain the apocalypse — not all to teach and 
preach, to exhort and pray : we want more who can 
explain the mystery of Christ in the soul; who can 
represent his meekness, humility and heavenly-mind- 
edness. Those are wanted, who can bear about in 
them, if not in their bodies, the visible scars of perse- 
cution, yet in the slanders against their character, the 
dying of the Lord Jesus. Who are ready for the 
hard names for Christ's sake ? 

Some of the afflictions of Christ are behind yet. 
Who can take part in filling out these sufferings ? 
Who can, in the spirit, groan? Who can sigh and 
cry for the abominations that are committed in the 
land? If you have no gift to pray or exhort, can 
you groan for truth arid God ? Do for your own 
sakes, somehow and somewhere; put yourselves into 
this holy, sympathetic wake, which draws pure spirits 
into fellowship with Christ's sufferings and Christ's 
labors. 

Perhaps my hearers recollect reading how two 
little boys rescued their brother from the deep water, 
while the small sister stood on the bank. When the 
three reached their father's house with the half- 
drowned brother, and they had related the part each 
took in the rescue, the father turned to the little sister r 
saying: " Well, Mary, and what did you do?" "I 
stood on the bank and cried, as hard as I could, 
father ! " And who will say that did no good ? 
13 



184 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

Now, some of the saved ones, whom God has 
stopped on these shores of time, can do but little 
else, except weep and pray for the lost. And is it no 
encouragement to the minister who is reaching out 
into the turbid tide of death, battling in the whirl- 
pools of ruin for lost men, to hear the little ones cry- 
ing on the bank for his success ? 

And when the Great Father dispenses his smiles 
and rewards, do you think the little Marias will be 
left out of the account ? 

And when the song of deliverance is sung, and 
heaven grows jubilant over redemption, do you think 
the weepers on the bank will have no part in the 
exultation? 

As sure as they were with Christ in the struggle, 
they shall be with Christ in the triumph. 

A holy woman once called to me, with the request 
that I should visit the family down the street, in a 
red house, as she had been laboring with them, and 
thought I could do them good. I went, and souls 
were saved. In the great day when immortal honors 
are given, will all that glory go to my crown ? No ! 
No ! I should be ashamed to receive it. 

Take another case. At the time of a revival, one 
of these spiritual inventors of usefulness went night 
after night, in the snow, to take care of the children 
of an unsaved woman. She went to meeting — was 
converted. My preaching had a saving effect. 

Well, suppose it did ; will the crown of her who 
waited on children gain nothing by the result ? Quite 



WHY CHRISTIANS ARE DETAINED ON EARTH. 185 

likely her kindness and her prayers, when alone with 
the little ones, had more to do with the woman's sal- 
vation than all my preaching. In riding with an old 
friend a few years ago, he said : At the time of the 
revival, when you were here (a long time since), I 
drove away round that road to carry the family of 
that house to meetings. He hesitated ; at length 
said, they make good Christians, and wiped his eyes. 
I felt happy in his happiness and in his usefulness, 
and wept with him. Then came the thought, ''Shall 
I ever talk of my converts ? Shall I rob the crown 
of the meek and lowly ones to make out myself 
useful ? Even the thought pained me. Probably the 
cases are few where the honor of instrumental salva- 
tion goes to the credit of one only. Perhaps we min- 
isters little suspect the contributions of others, to 
what is considered our successes. And when He who 
marks the dear souls he calls his own ; who bottles 
all their tears, and counts their groans ; when He 
shall unravel Christian instrumentality, some of us 
may be left less important than others supposed us to 
be. More than thirty years ago, I was called to the 
room of a dying saint, near Lake Champlain, on 
Willsboro mountain. Her dying seemed postponed, 
till she could exhort the young minister to be true 
and faithful, and declare the whole couhsel of God. 
She held my hand, and talked faith and holy 
courage into my soul ; she made an impression on 
my mind, and died. That charge delivered in the 
gates of death, has been nerving my faint heart more 



186 OTHER SELECTIONS. 

than thirty years. The crown of that obscure saint 
is not finished yet ; it is waiting till fruit in the then 
young minister shall have been made out. And who 
shall say that the detention of that believer, so long 
on earth, has not its reward, even in him w r ho received 
her last words. And now, my friends, if I have been 
too strenuous for eternal truth — if I have preached 
too close for the religious conservatism of this age, 
charge a part of it to this dying saint, a part to my 
father and mother — to Paul, Daniel, the three 
Hebrews, and the rest to unchangeable God and his 
old-fashioned Bible. I claim no credit for it, and 
shall bear no blame of it. If there is any quarrel on 
the subject, it involves dead men's bones and departed 
spirits. If there is any censure for thorough religion 
in me, dead folks are more to blame for it than 
myself. For I have inhaled the breath of some of 
the dying champions of our God. 

Now ye timid disciples, ye who feel so small in the 
presence of great gifts, and are ready to inquire why 
you are kept here — have I not encouraged you to 
stay — to stay and fill the little places ? Have I not 
shown you that little work is important, so important 
that the most of the great work is dependent on it ; 
and that the little workers shall at last share in the 
same glory with the great workers ? Then lift thy 
head in humble trust, and go forth to thy holy calling. 



god's ultimate argument with man. 187 



MORAL NECESSITIES GOD'S ULTIMATE 
ARGUMENT WITH MAN. 

Because it is written: Be ye holy, for I am holy. — 1 Pet. 1 : 16. 

From the text, my hearers no doubt are ready to 
conclude, that holiness is to be the present subject. 

Great as the truth of holiness is— great as is the 
command to be holy, there is a greater truth than 
both of these combined. 

It is that which lies back of holiness — back of the 
command, viz.: Moral necessities. 

This truth is alluded to in the text: "For I am holy." 

There are a group of errors having a common 
center, which I hope to expose, if successful in pre- 
senting my subject, on the present occasion. 

The philosophy of faith and obedience, or the 
practice of faith and works, has developed two 
classes of minds. Whether that faith relate to God, 
or otherwise, it is the same. 

One class assents to the authority of truth, because 
it comes with authority ; give them chapter and verse 
of the immutable word, and it's enough — enough 
that the Supreme commands — they obey. When 
children, they obeyed their parents, because of the 
authority of their parents. 

These are the more uniform and reliable class of 
persons, and not so critical to deal with. 



188 MORAL NECESSITIES GOD'S 

They are fortunately endowed with a credulous 
and confiding spirit ; if j 7 ou could see their minds, 
they would be found in a reclining posture — they are 
predisposed to rest on authority. 

There is another class, who, in addition to its 
authority, demand a perception of truth ; it is not 
enough for them that the Lord commands ; they wish 
to know why he commands. These are the inquisi- 
tive and critical minds, who make trouble for them- 
selves as well as others. If you can give them one 
why and wherefore of the command, you will help 
them more than by chapters of authority. 

These persons are very liable to become perplexed 
in religious things, and they need to be understood 
to be dealt with to profit. From this class come the 
skeptics and infidels; yes, and from this class come 
also those who turn the world upside down ; here, 
too, you get the giants, who dare stand out alone for 
truth, making inroads upon the ungodly customs of 
Church or State. When these persons do overcome 
and believe, it is with a great faith ; they move with 
force and power ; the home conflicts through which 
they pass in overcoming themselves, have educated 
their moral nature up to great strength. 

These persons cannot be hurried through the pro- 
cesses, for they have every inch of ground to examine 
as they pass along ; but when they do reach the goal, 
they are there with emphasis. But these persons 
will always be liable to perplexities from the new 
discovered mysteries of the kingdom, for they will be 



ULTIMATE ARGUMENT WITH MAX. 189 

finding depths too great for their lines to fathom, 
where they must take the word of bare authority, 
with the why and wherefore quite beyond their 
grasp. 

My text is remarkably adapted to both these classes. 
We have the authority of truth in the Old Testament, 
endorsed by the authority of the New Testament 
and re-enacted. Then we have the great why and 
wherefore of the command stated. 

There is one error which, from its prevalence and 
plausibilitj^, is doing more harm than we may suspect. 
Then it is seldom that I hear it alluded to in the 
pulpit. It is this : That the commandments of the 
Lord are arbitrary — that he requires us to repent, 
believe and become holy, because he has authority to 
do so — that he made his laws for us- as suited him 
best — that they might have been different, or none at 
all, as conditions of salvation, if the Lord had 
happened to so order it ; but, since he has made 
them, he is determined we shall obey. 

From this spring other errors of the same class, 
viz. : That the Lord can convert us when he pleases f 
and make us holy ; and as to heaven, that is opened or 
shut b}^ the same arbitrary power — that the celestial 
gates are made to swing to Divine caprice ; that all 
of us might be admitted, if the Infinite felt so 
disposed. 

And just here the opposition to God and his Bible 
is planted ; practically saying, If I am not good 
enough, make me better, for I am ready to be con- 



190 MORAL NECESSITIES GOD'S 

verted any time, as many have declared ; or, in other 
words, saying, Let down the terms and I will accept. 

If we could read the hearts of men, we should 
probably find multitudes who hope for heaven more 
through the yielding of God's terms than from any 
other ground ; and especialty since the Infinite is so 
compassionate, he will modify the stern decree rather 
than see so many lost 

It is true, none doubt of admission to heaven at 
last, if they consent to go the old way, through 
repentance, conversion and holiness ; but this many 
can hardly afford to do, with the prospect they have 
of getting the terms changed- Hence the multitudes 
about us, who have closed up the controversy, and 
staked the whole of their eternity on the experiment 
of going through on the excitement of God's com- 
passion. 

The Lord help a mortal man against depravity this 
once ! Compassion has to do in providing the remedy 
— in adapting means for man's salvation — in prolong- 
ing the day of grace, etc., but (will you hear it, my 
friends ?) compassion has nothing to do in the 
decisions of the last day. Compassion is not an 
attribute, but an excitement of love, which is only 
known in the redemptive struggle for lost men ; but 
when that effort is over, and it is proclaimed : " Let 
him that is holy be holy still, and let him that is 
filthy be filthy still," compassion's work is done, and 
is never known the other side of that declaration. 

All the transactions from this point on are marked 



ULTIMATE ARGUMENT WITH MAN. 191 

with judgment to the line and righteousness to the 
plummet! 

The standard of holiness, instead of being a mov- 
able scale, rising and falling to suit the different 
generations and dispensations, is as unalterable as the 
throne. The law of rectitude has no beginning and 
admits of no changing. 

As God does not and cannot save in his kingdom 
below, on the rule of himself, neither will he admit 
to his final glory on mere prerogative. Both here 
and there, now and then, God acts under law. Man's 
right to eternal blessedness rests on one bare fact ; 
when simplified it is this : Soul rectitude, or holiness 
of heart. On that law the Iufinite is committed to 
serve on the day of doom. 

That's the law which opens heaven, admitting its 
possessor to immortality, though it might be against 
the clamor of a world. 

But to return to the kingdom of grace here. There 
is no doubt but the Lord has instituted rules and reg- 
ulations for civil and ecclesiastical governments, both 
ancient and modern ; also in relation to social life, 
which, though the best for the circumstances, yet they 
might have been modified or abrogated, perhaps, 
without ruin. But when we come to the funda- 
mentals of the kingdom of God on earth, and 
especially to the conditions of salvation, we come to 
another thing. 

The necessities of the great commandments are 
above legislation and beyond abrogation. 



192 MORAL NECESSITIES GOD'S 

The essentials of Christianity, such as repentance, 
faith, and holiness, were not created by enactment. 
God never made one of them by mere prerogative ; 
they are the outgrowth of moral necessities ; and 
because they were, and God saw they must be, he 
made them into laws. 

Look at my text. " Because I am holy ! " 

The reason of holiness in man existed before he 
was created. It is true, we are commanded to be 
holy, but the command never made the necessity ; 
it's the necessity which made the command; and in 
the text, is made to rest back upon it, as the ultimate 
argument. It is this pre-existent necessity, which 
gives to holy law in part, its awful sanction and immu- 
tability. The publishment of these laws are but the 
yea and amen, the seal and sanction of the Eternal to 
moral relations and obligations which grow out of 
the eternal fitness of things, not one of which can be 
abrogated without revolutionizing the relations of the 
moral universe. Holiness is a necessity in man, 
instead of being a superadded quality, a tacked on 
duty, and held on by enactment ; it's from the eternal, 
unchangeable holiness of God; it's the old original 
reason of Adam's holiness. 

Another twin error to those mentioned, is this : 
That the Infinite, because he is infinite, is above and 
beyond law, acting independent of all restraint ; 
therefore, he can do what his mercy dictates. This 
error is not confined to sinners: I find it in the Church. 
It originates in the supposition that the can and can- 



ULTIMATE ARGUMENT WITH MAN. 193 

not of God, rests mostly with his physical or literal 
power, dictated by mercy. Hence, if we can excite 
his compassion, he will answer our plea. 

My friends, I hope to be reverent, though I speak 
strongly. Physical power knows no disabilities — 
Almighty has no limitations in itself. As far as we 
are informed, only the fingers of Al mightiness have 
moved yet ; we have come up to where we are, and 
starting from nothing at that, on finger work only. 

Let no one suppose, then, that when the Bible 
speaks of the can and cannot of the Infinite, that it 
relates to literal power. No, it is in God's moral 
attributes that we are to look for the restraints which 
govern the Infinite ; behind which no necessity is. 

Every intelligent being comes into the unyielding 
moral lets and hindrances, just in proportion as he 
partakes of God. Do you hear it, O ye conformers 
to the world ? 

Look at the epithets prepared for Bible Christians : 
Bigoted, superstitious, old fogy, fanatical, disturbing 
element, wild-fire, animal excitement. 

Why scold at saints till the Bible quarrel is 
through ? They are not to blame. 

As well complain of the everlasting noise of 
Niagara. The roar is not to blame, the fault is in the 
mighty rocks and the unmannerly waters. 

The mariner wishes to go west, but his compass 
points south. He sets it over and over, but it flies 
back to its old position ; so he scolds and swears over 
the contrary compass— says it never points where he 



194 MOEAL NECESSITIES GOD'S 

wants to go. Sailor ! the trouble is not in the 
compass; it's in the heavens, or the electric currents. 
Doctor the north star — wrench the poles around to 
where you want to go, and the compass will come all 
right ; it only obeys its cause. So there are holy 
souls scattered over this globe, who hold true to God 
as compass to the poles. They are the invincibles — 
the unconquerables — the daring spirits, who venture 
to do right in the face of high-titled wrong. They 
belong to the generation of those who have wandered 
in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being afflicted, destitute 
and tormented, because they could not wrong. Satan 
and his emissaries, in union with a fallen church, have 
been driving at them for ages. 

The trouble is not with the saints ; they are inno- 
cent. I'ts in the unalterable rectitude of God. Doc- 
tor eternal right — change the immutable word and 
demoralize the throne of heaven, and there will be 
no trouble with saints. That inflexible daring, pro 
and con, yes and no, of that holy soul, which worldly 
professors call old fogy, is from the awful immutable 
can and cannot of Jehovah. The old fogyism has its 
seat in the upper, unchangeable throne. Scold heaven 
into a decent religion, before you persecute saints. 

Take, as an illustration of the unconquerableness of 
rectitude, a martyr before the stake-fires. He cannot 
deny his Lord ; he is too deficient in wickedness for 
that ; but he can burn for his sake. His goodness — 
his unchangeable rectitude, is a match for fire, and 
stronger than death ! 



ULTIMATE ARGUMENT WITH MAN. 195 

Bead in this little finite — this faint illustration, the 
terrible import of the yes and no of Jehovah ! 
When God says No ! let the world take warning 
that he has come up to a great impassable bar in his 
nature. When He says, without holiness no man 
shall see the Lord, know by this that an impossible 
is in the way ; and shall a mortal man think to pray 
or reason, or hope against God's no I Hear it, my 
kindred and myself. God's no must stand no, though 
a world might wreck on it ! It J s the unchangeable 
no of necessity ! When God says yes, look out for 
triumph ! When he says, " He that believeth on 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ;" know 
by this, that that soul shall not only go clear of the 
impossibles, but the yes of God is on his side. O, 
my hearers, let us be in haste to put ourselves into 
the great currents of holy influence, where the yes of 
God is the flow of the tide ! 

Moral necessities are the unalterable, imperishable 
granites on which God builds his kingdom. Admit- 
ting I am a Christian to-day, and governed by holy 
principles, it may be asserted with some confidence, 
perhaps, that I cannot lie, not but that I have physical 
power, as far as that goes in the transaction, but 
physical power can 't lie ; a tongue never perpetrated 
that sin yet ; the most it ever does in that line is to 
give the echo of a lying soul — to make manifest an 
inward transaction. 

If I am unable to commit the sin, then, it is because 
of the absence of wickedness from my mind, as it is 



196 MORAL NECESSITIES GOD'S 

impossible to commit a wicked act, except by a 
wicked soul. But I am changeable ; my goodness 
may decline — my rectitude may become so weak, 
that, by next month, I may become bad enough to 
lie. But when we speak of Him in whom there is 
neither variableness nor shadow of turning ; if he 
said, eighteen hundred years ago, that he could not 
lie, he is the same to-day. 

His absolute and perfect holiness will make it 
eternally impossible for the great Unchangeable to 
lie. The reason is, there is a moral necessity against 
it, and almightiness is weak before such restraint. 
As there is that in the Infinite which is more than 
thunder and stronger than almighty, so there is that 
in a Christian which is more than fire, more than 
death, and stronger than physical power ; it 's the 
borrowed ability of God, by w^hich a mortal masters 
all the outside powers. A saint is unconquerable 
mostty on account of the base of his operations ; he 
acts from the upper throne. If God deals with man 
on the principle of mere prerogative, because He is 
supreme, having the power, acting independent of 
the law of fitness or moral necessit}', either in him- 
self or the beings he has created, we should look 
for such action in the beginning of things, before he 
had made a revelation of himself or published his 
purposes. For the time was when but one prohibi- 
tion was known in this world ; the race started with 
one solitary, Sliall not^ from God. 

Now if there is no unalterable because of God's 



ULTIMATE ARGUMENT WITH MAN. 197 

action lying back of all that's visible, why did he 
not hush up this first outbreak in these quiet bowers, 
pass over the first Adam transgression, reverse the 
sentence and stay back the curse? But no ; the curse 
came, and came everywhere, not only into man, but 
into the earth, air and water, all through nature ; and 
every thing that moves to-day carries the mark of 
first curse. What an illustration of the unchange- 
ableness of right ! 

Back in the gray of the morning, when man was 
young and the earth tender, and but little was known 
of the Infinite ; in all the wide sweep, from upper 
heaven to nether hell, but one moral restraint was 
known. 

In man's abode there was set down one prohibition 
— one shalt not, from God. 

And there, because the Great Unchangeable could 
not contradict eternal right and perpetrate the crime 
of variableness, he was compelled to look on and see 
this fair Eden system wreck on one solitary No ! 

Beautiful as this world is still called — called such 
because of our ignorance of the former perhaps — 
as this present system, with its infinite varieties and 
adaptations, is but the wreck of the original aflair, 
requiring constant watchfulness and Almighty inter- 
position to prevent utter ruin; in keeping such mighty 
contradictions running to the same end. 

Here let us pause and gravel}' ask ourselves : What 
must sin be ? And what must that necessity be, 
pressing on the God of goodness, to bring out a shock 



198 MORAL NECESSITIES GOD ? S 

of -wrath like this for the first? In this. sinner ! 
sinner against thy God ! in this, read the import of 
the corning tribulations ! 

If this is only the portent, what must the full 
storm be ? 

Yes, what will it do to the world, and what will it 
do to thee, O transgressor, when God takes his hush 
from the mighty tempest, and the pent-up siroccos 
of ruin come howling through the darkened heavens, 
and the thunder roads gleam with lightning forked 
at thee ? 

Again, who can comprehend the terribleness of that 
necessity which, to save the human race, required the 
sacrifice of the Son of God, as an atonement for sin? 

But it was required ; and from Christ's prayer in 
the garden, we infer that this was the great, one, only 
alternative — that Infinite God even, had not one 
expedient beside! — that the case hung on this one 
rugged bloody possible, and it was accepted first by 
promise. Christ, at the beginning of things, assumed 
the responsibility of the human race, for the penalty 
of law. By virtue of this promise, sentence was sus- 
pended and man suffered to live — the race was per- 
petuated, and the spiritual transactions were carried 
on, on the promissory principle. 

That was a wonderful overture in which Jesus 
Christ pledged his soul and body for suffering and 
sorrow — for crucifixion and burial, that sinners might 
be saved. The pledge w\as accepted — the storm 
subsided — thunder rolled backward, and double 



ULTIMATE ARGUMENT WITH MAN. 199 

night lifted from the morning of time and the heritage 
of man ! Thus, on the credit system, redemption was 
carried on for the long centuries ; men were saved 
through faith in Him who was to come, but saved in 
sight of the curse, as it were, for sentence was not 
revoked, but deferred and held good against the 
substitute. 

Thus the wold's dark account ran against the Son 
of God — augmenting with death, with wrath, wit;h 
night ! 

Like storm held in reserve, it gathered big with 
hoarded fury, and there, facing the universe in sullen, 
muttering wrath, that storm hung for four thousand 
years, clamoring for blood ! 

Take another illustration of moral necessity, 
already alluded to. Go to the garden of prayer 
and suffering. Contemplate the pressure of that 
burden which lay on the soul of the Son of God, 
which forced from that heart of love and compassion 
an appeal to the possible ! 

He says, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even 
unto death ! " 

The curse is coming into my soul ! Eternal death 
confronts me ! I ask not for the most expedient or 
safe — for the better or best. I stand before the great 
necessity which involves the hope of a world, and 
ask : Is any escape possible from this crisis ? 

What is the response to this most awful and heart- 
rending appeal which ever entered the ear of heaven ? 

Silence ! naught but silence ! for there is no expedi- 
14 



200 MORAL NECESSITIES GOD'S 

ent with Infinite God for the case. It 's the everlast- 
ing overthrow of the human race, or Christ must 
face this storm. Here the doom of the world hangs 
on the obedience of God's Son ! 

And it was done ! Jesus bowed his head in acqui- 
escence of the great necessity ! On its acceptance I 
seem to hear the rustling of white robes about the 
throne, while the gates of paradise go up of their 
own accord, and the everlasting doors give way as 
tokens of Messiah's triumph ! 

If there is, anywhere in the universe, a necessity 
which exacts of the holy, immaculate substitute of the 
sinner, such suffering as this for his redemption, what 
will it do with the sinner himself if he rejects this 
Saviour ? 

Another instance of moral necessity, which, how- 
ever, is not so striking and obvious as those mentioned, 
is in the effects of sin and its relation to holiness. That 
sin produces misery, is not by enactment. A sinner's 
torment is not so much a transported curse from God 
to his soul; it's the effect of amoral, unchangeable 
cause. The nature of soul is such, and the nature of 
sin is such, that when the soul sins, except the mind 
is stupid, the effect must be misery ; and it must be 
such in all places and in all worlds, and there is no 
help for it in earth or heaven, but in the pardon of sin. 

And now, since I am so near it, let me justify, as 
ministers, our way with sinners, in dwelling so much 
on sin and its final ruin. 

This effect of sin to produce misery is not only 



ULTIMATE ARGUMENT WITH MAN. 201 

natural to sin, but this misery is justice to holiness as 
well as to sin, and by contrast shall eternally glorify 
righteousness. To make a display of positive good- 
ness and positive happiness in goodness only, is leav- 
ing one-half the story of righteousness untold. Dark, 
guilty sin, with its waitings and woes — its darkness 
and death — its eternity of hell, belong to holiness as 
its contrasts. 

And whoever strikes out of his picture the dark 
side of redemption's mighty work, filling all the 
ground with that which is pleasing and heavenly, may 
win for himself greetings in the market; but it's at 
the expense of robbing righteousness of half its due 
— it's thievery from Messiah's crown to deck my 
unworthy head, for it was this deliverance from, 
which brought on the great struggles of our 
Redeemer. 

An honest estimate of redemption is conscientious 
with respect to the starting point of the reckoning. 

It's true, it would be pleasing to a vain, haughty 
world, and it would be palatable to self-righteous- 
ness, for ministers to speak only of what we are 
saved to, but it is a fraud on holiness and redemption 
both. I am aware that it is considered aristocratic 
and very gentlemanly for the minister to take it for 
granted that his congregation, at least, are not practical 
sinners. Hence, his starting point in the process of 
salvation is at respectability, refinement, high morals 
and amiable disposition. These are the characters to 
which he is to open his mission and his message, by 



202 MORAL NECESSITIES GOD'S 

exhorting the people to faith in Christ for acceptance 
— a people, perhaps, who suffer more for sackcloth 
and ashes than for glory. 

Thus, to suit the taste and quiet soul-alarm, the 
dear, beloved minister must dwell on things beautiful, 
things lovely and of good report, and by-and-by it 
will be heaven. My friends, do n't you see how we 
are liable to be tempted into dishonest dealing, 
through fear of offending you? And yet you sus- 
pect, and I suspect, minister or layman who is con- 
servative on the side of wrong, while capable of 
glowing eloquence in things amiable and lovely. 

Hear it, my friends ! Deep, God-like rectitude 
includes hatred to wrong just in proportion to our 
love for the true and holy. It 7 s an instinct of virtue 
to hate badness, and anything less than hate to wrong 
is injustice to right. 

One illustration more of my proposition must 
suffice. One necessity of holiness in man has been 
alluded to, viz.: The holiness of God. But there is 
a necessity in man himself for this state. It appears 
in this view : That man, though depraved and sin- 
ful — having lost the moral likeness to God, neverthe- 
less retains his natural image ; that is, he is rational 
in intellect, spiritual in essence, and immortal in 
nature. He is made capable of God in his capacities 
and aspirations. He is naturally wrought up to a 
high appreciation of the Infinite ; so much so, that 
he would not only be driven to God from necessity, 



ULTIMATE ARGUMENT WITH MAX. 203 

but he would be drawn to God by attraction, but for 
the revulsion of man's sinfulness. 

The argument is here : That in endowing and 
capacitating man for the high and holy One — that in 
making him capable in intellect — in immortality — in 
mind vastitude, and in mind voidness, for the society 
and enjoyment of the great God, he is, and of neces- 
sity must be, vastly overmade for the things and the 
world material. 

And it 's this, above and beyond of the being, which 
unfits him for a corruptible world, as his sphere of 
existence. For mere carnal pleasure, man is an infinite 
surplus of misery. Mortal body, happy in its native 
corruptible sphere, while infinite mind, overlapping 
all created limits, wanders in loneliness outside of 
both worlds. My friends, there is no use, you can 
never bring the whole of yourself within this seen 
world ; you are overmade for animal pleasure only. 
It's the celestial of you which mismates you for 
animal life. 

The sinner stands a living death between the high 
and holy life of God and the groveling life of a 
mortal body. His want of holiness shuts him out of 
the God life, while his spirituality and immortality 
excludes the most of him from animal life. As there 
is no hope of our ever being able to shake off the great 
everlasting of ourselves, and come down to this little 
mortal of us, there is no help for you or me, but 
through holiness to come into fellowship with the 
great God. It's a moral necessity. 



204 SOUL-HTOGEE SATISFIED. 



SOUL-HUNGEK SATISFIED. 

" Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they 
shall be filled. 5 '— Matt. 5 : 6. 

This chapter commences with the beatitudes of 
Christ, or blessedness pronounced on particular dis- 
positions or traits of character. 

These blessednesses, or virtues, are so arranged as 
to constitute a climax of character. This climax 
begins with the poor in spirit, and ends with the pure 
in heart, taking six degrees or steps in making the 
rise, from the poor bankrupt soul, who stands desti- 
tute of the merit of good works, to the open vision 
of God through purity of heart. 

After crowning these mentioned graces with purity, 
the Saviour speaks of three particular developments 
of this holy character, which are more practical ; in 
these also he pronounces them blessed. # 

My text is the fourth degree in this rising scale of 
goodness. Hence, if this is a correct view of the 
order and importance of the Christian graces — to 
hunger and thirst after righteousnes marks a higher 
degree of spirituality than meekness, which has the 
promise of inheriting the earth, while meekness obvi- 
ously ranks higher than mournfulness, which is the 
result of poverty of spirit. And is it not true that 
poverty of spirit is the beginning of salvation — the 



SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 205 

first, great, critical triumph of the Holy Ghost ia 
a sinner ? 

My text contains a description of a rare and yet 
essential experience of the mind ; not that the descrip- 
tion is in words, so much as in the metaphor used : — 
Hunger and thirst. 

We have time, at present, only for a few particulars 
of this deep truth. 

First — Inquire what this righteousness is ? 

In some connections of scripture it includ-es nearly 
all that appertains to practical and experimental 
Christianity, but in the text it is limited. 

Here it does not mean rite, ceremony or worship ; 
neither does it mean an open confession of Christ, a 
circumspect life, or godly conversation, but it does 
mean the root, or fountain of all these. Righteous- 
ness in the text, if I understand it, is a dispensation, 
an impartation of the Divine,, an influx of spiritual 
life — the soul's native aliment ami element. What 
water is to the fish, in some respects, righteousness is 
to the soul. The fish lives in the water and his vital- 
ity is sustained by and through the water. So of 
this righteousness. It is the element in which a pure 
spirit moves, and the banquet of holy existence 

Second — What is hunger in general ? 

Hunger is not an act, nor a transaction, But a* 
necessary result of unsatisfied want ; the inward 
clamor of mind, voidness, which is the natural state 
of man fallen. 

Intense desire — immortal longings even, are natu- 



206 SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 

ral to mind, but the upward turn of these desires to 
a holy good is supernatural. It is the spirit lifting 
the soul from groveling toys up into its native sphere; 
for depravity has so changed the pitch of the soul's 
intense out-lookings and aspirations, that unaided by 
a higher power, it must eternally wander wide of the 
mark ; for the world, even by its wisdom, never yet 
came to know God. 

The trouble of the world, then, is not in the want 
of desire. The hurry, surge and rush of mortals 
everywhere, is evidence of the force and intensity of 
mind-hunger, though misdirected. Everywhere is 
visible the apprehension of some outer good, some- 
where and somehow, for which internal want is 
stretching forth its empty hands. 

The lion in his cage, w r ith the longing for his 
native lairs and liberty, does not know what ails him, 
but thinks it is walking that he wants ; hence the end- 
less tramping from side to side. So the soul, shut 
.away from its God, with the sigh for the celestial deep 
within, does not know what ails it, but thinks it is 
jiches, or fashionable attire ; hence the endless effort 
to mock immortal want with fleeting bubbles. 

Give us the gauge of one's restlessness — of the 
intensity of his internal craving, and out-looking and 
longing, and we have his capacity either for blessing 
or for curse, for heaven or for hell. I do not mean 
his moral fitness but natural capacity. In this view 
one may be more than another. 

The phrase so familiar in these years, viz.: " Can't 



SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 207 

watt" may have a deeper meaning than we suspect ; 
often coming from immortal anxiousness — the unrest 
of the soul. 

This outside flurry and bustle, seen everywhere, is 
often but the diversion of inward fearfulness over 
impending destiny. It is true, it appears to be the 
hurry of nerves and muscles pressed with the cares 
of life, a mere surface excitement ; but the impelling 
power of mysterious man lies back of flesh and blood 
and bones. 

We might as well attribute the motive power of 
that train of cars to the driving wheels. Those 
driving wheels are as the re-creation of a hidden 
power, which would blow itself up, but for this 
out-play of its pressure. 

Hush down the crazed tumult of the world ; 
uncouple man from his last driving wheel ; shut him 
up to himself, bereft of outside entertainment ; quiet 
him down, so still that he could hear the gnaw of 
immortal hunger, and he would go distracted over 
internal cravings ! 

Much of the desperate huny for amusement and 
pleasure — for riches and display, is but a shrewd 
mockery of the soul's unceasing clamor for its celes- 
tial sphere. 

If the sentiment so extensively practiced upon be 
true, viz.: "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we 
die ; " that is, if man's existence is bounded by this 
life, and his only enjoyments relate to the things 
which are seen — to the good of this world only, he is 



208 SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 

the greatest blunder in creation. He is then the great, 
and the only, mis-make of the Creator ! The curse of 
him, and the curse in him, is the over-make of him ! 

There is too much of man for this whole world. 
With all his efforts to circumscribe himself down to 
finite limits — to animalize his soul to carnal pleasures, 
he will fail to bring his great nature within the 
bounds of worldly good, while the overplus, when 
awake to his condition, is deep, unmitigated misery, 
the death-hunger of immortality ! Man overlaps 
finite limits on all sides ! 

My friends, will you ponder this great truth — that 
this world of created good is equal to only a part of 
you ; to this mortal fraction — the outer house of an 
incomprehensible soul ? What, then, is to be done 
with you — yourself? 

An unholy soul is a disfranchised, outcast nature, 
hanging in desolate, dreamy existence outside of both 
worlds ! The celestial of his being excludes him 
from this corruptible world, while the want of holi- 
ness shuts him out of the heavenly world. For if 
my nature — my whole nature, craves no more than 
what appertains to this world, why am I not satisfied 
when filled with worldly good? 

If I have but five senses, and these are all gratified, 
why am I not contented ? Why this longing after 
something beyond — this indefinable hungering for 
something outside of mortal range ? Ah, my friends, 
the trouble comes from the sixth sense — the spiritual 
nature. 



SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 209 

Third — I come now to the definite hunger of the 
text. 

My hearers will observe that hunger and thirst 
both are used in this passage. Not that we are to 
understand by this that two desires and two satisfac- 
tions are meant. It means more than this ; it means 
a two-fold desire in one — a double distress for the 
great want of my being ! Hunger and thirst are two 
intensely exciting facts ; the pith and point of radical 
want and desperation. Let this great two-fold crav- 
ing unite in one person literally, and we have a rare 
specimen of one idea and one business ; it is said such 
will go through a stone wall. Would you think to 
pacify such an one with fine speeches of his beauty or 
learning, of fine apparel or stately mansions ? If so, 
you know not whom you are dealing with. 

The bright — the cheer and charm — the music and 
attraction of all things center in one great word, 
Bread! ! He sees more to be desired in bread than 
in all other things. It outweighs with him all creation 
beside. 

Shall I think to pacify a soul athirst for God, by 
administering talk of his good standing in society, of 
his talents and usefulness ? With a look of disgust 
on such nonsense he exclaims, "Give me Jesus or 
I die ! " 

Aristocratic eating, like going to church, may be 
more an apology for the display of gilt-edged fixings 
than the relief of distress from want ; for pride will 
starve rather than fail to make a display. Then what 



210 SOUL HUNGER SATISFIED. 

a privation to multitudes would it be to have the 
churches closed, not because it is the banqueting place 
of the bread of heaven, but because it is the best 
show-room of fashion in all the land, where, for one 
still hour the claims to rivalry in beads and feathers 
may be canvassed to advantage. 

But mark this : Real hunger is not whimsical as to 
the style of serving ; the greatest word in its vocabu- 
lary is, " Give me enough" 

Then, hunger is an acute discerner of the difference 
between a display of china and bread ; as this is the 
last case to divide his feast between mouth and eyes- 
great dazzle and little food. To mock the appetite 
by administering to eyes is an insult to hunger. 

So some churches in the land, for the want of some- 
thing to eat, substitute ceremonies for soul-eating, 
ceremonies of contrasts, and ceremonies of harmonies, 
to parade, and manoeuvre, and make-believe eating, 
like children playing "come to see." 

But when we come to the kingdom entertainment, 
we find another thino;. Here is righteousness and 
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost — ]oj unspeakable 
and full of gloiy, where the saints cry out and shout, 
because the Holy One of Israel is in the midst of 
them. You may administer common prayer-book 
and machine worship to mummies ; but if there are 
living souls in that church they know the fraud, 
and if they really hunger for the holy, you may look 
out for uncommon prayer — prayer, too. such as never 
yet was printed. You may entertain nerves and 



SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 211 

muscles with empty sound, but when immortal 
hunger opens its mouth, woe to the man who feeds 
chaff. 

Brethren, the experience presented in the text is 
excited by the Holy Ghost, and it is definite. Wher- 
ever you find a mind under the operation of the 
Eternal Spirit, you find a definite thing, one not only 
of deep and clear discernment, but of definite con- 
victions and wants. 

When I see a saint on his knees, or a minister in 
the pulpit, struggling for lost men against the com- 
promise of sin and the policy of the world, with 
authority and pathos and daring, I know the cause. 
Then the gleam of the two-edged sword is seen strik- 
ing and cleaving and dissecting with a discernment 
and precision positively above the human, running its 
sharpness between joints and marrow. I stand in awe 
before the visible motions of the Holy Ghost. So of 
every want and experience when by the Holy Ghost 
it is marked w T ith definiteness. 

How unlike the fondling, commending, praising 
prayers that sometimes come driveling through the 
lips or flattery over a half-awakened sinner, whose 
rebellion and pride God is trying to break down ! 

To hunger and thirst for a definite good pre-sup- 
poses a knowledge of that good. 

Awakened sinners desire Christ, but they desire 
him more for what he can do for them, than for 
what he is. 

They have no moral fitness for the enjoyment of 



212 SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 

Christ, but they have a terrible necessity for his par- 
doning mercy. Hence they desire him from necessity, 
as the sick desire the doctor for his medicines. But 
this is not hungering for righteousness. This experi- 
ence is peculiar to the righteous. 

Hanger knows its own wants, both instinctively and 
experimentally. Were you in a freezing condition, 
you would not only know what you wanted, but you 
would be carried back to former experiences of warm 
fires. Although you might have read of Southern 
climes, where winter is unknown, you could hardly 
imagine summer w r eather in wnnter, but vou could see 
and almost feel your own home-fire. If you were 
starving, you would not busy yourself in reading 
over the description of rare luxuries in foreign 
countries, but you would remember the good food 
eaten, with the old taste still in the mouth. So when 
the spirit makes the soul athirst for righteousness, 
a recollection of former experiences intensifies the 
deep longing for the holy ; for hunger tastes the 
banquet from afar. 

It is marvelous to see how r persons with a strong 
relish for the spiritual, will sometimes filter through 
the milk of the word from the minister's dilutions. 
These require truth as naked of human words as 
possible to its understanding. Then, their spiritual 
taste is so exquisite, that the}^ are the first to turn to 
loathing over a mere human compound ; while, on 
the other hand, they taste a heavenly banquet from 
the distant odor. I have known some of these, tast- 



SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 213 

ing things Divine, when the sermon seemed all human, 
and dead at that, just leave their bodies respectfully 
seated in the pew, and themselves go off to hold meet- 
ing with patriarchs and martyrs, and sometimes their 
holy communings failed to close in time for the body- 
meeting to be out. 

I hardly dare to speak of the inferences which the 
minister is making, as he marks the heavenly counte- 
nance. " Guess I've preached a great sermon this 
time." No, no, don't think it. Alas, for us ministers 
— poor dispensers of the bread of life, when our 
hearers make more by going off gleaning, than to 
w 7 ait for our empty hands — when they get more edifi- 
cation and excitement bv sitting with the righteous 

at O © 

dead than hearing the tinkling cymbal of the living. 
Be patient with us, friends, for we cannot always 
preach as we wish. 

Then, on the other hand, I have seen the predic- 
tion of coming sumptuousness by the kingdom manner 
of the first hymn. No marvel if the man of God, 
when surcharged with heavenly truth and love, should, 
perchance, jostle the brain a little before the time ; I 
mean the aristocratic time for being blessed. 

It is said that shepherds, in calling their flocks 
about them, sometimes, to save salt, put pebble stones 
into the dish, when the little, foolish lambs leave a 
good bite of grass to run after the shake of gravel 
stones ; but the old sheep disdain so much as to lift 
up their heads for such nonsense. So these hungerers 
after righteousness, found more or less in every church, 



214 SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 

cannot be cheated ; neither can they be pacified with 
the shell of the Word only. Their constitutions 
demand the deep things of the kingdom. 

Fourth — Trace out some analogies between literal 
and spiritual hunger. 

1. The strongest constitutions — the best conditioned 
stomachs, are the first and last at the table. So, 
spiritually ; the best Christians in the church are the 
first at the altar and to the mercy seat for more 
righteousness. 

2. On the other hand, dyspeptic persons are better 
judges of the manner of the feast than of the feast 
itself. A little mistake in the style of serving, spoils 
their eating. It is counted a nice point to meet the 
fastidiousness of their appetite. So, spiritually; there 
are multitudes of professors who are experts in the 
outward manners of religion, and that is as far as 
they can appreciate it. Their relish for the spiritual 
is too weak to overcome the circumstantial defects of 
the externals. The}' see and hear and judge by the 
spirit of the world ; hence, everything in things holy 
must meet this carnal taste, or it goes for nothing. 

After a very spiritual meeting, one of the smart 
ladies was asked how she liked the sermon. She said 
the preacher's hands were not white enough for a 
minister ! Just as though the man had been ordained 
to go round the world to exhibit hands ! No doubt 
the lady was a judge of hands and perhaps of voice. 

I once visited that wonderful panoramic painting 
of the Mississippi, where three thousand miles of 



SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 215 

majestic creation were reeled off in one evening, 
taking us through sunshine and shower, midnight and 
noon, the break of day and setting of sun ; rain, hail, 
thunder and lightning — a grand display of heaven 
and earth. A man was asked how he liked it. He 
said the cotton cloth was too coarse. Probably he 
had worked in a cotton factory ! 

3. Take a case of relapsed sickness, with the disease 
greatly intensified. Yesterday food was relished; 
to-day the thought of former hearty eating is nauseat- 
ing; even the smell of food in a distant room is 
sickening, and to see others eat is out of the question. 
So it is spiritually. These relapsed souls, who have 
gone back, like the dog to his vomit, are the first to 
be disgusted over the hosannahs of the kingdom. 
And especially those who pretend to be a little better 
than those who make so great an ado over religion. 

When the elect of God cry day and night, like 
children around father's table clamoring for bread, 
they call it a reproach to the church, and sometimes 
leave the house in a rage. They can't help it ; they 
are sick. Others seem to know, from the accent of 
the joyful sound — they know, from death instinct, 
where the heavenly banquet is spread ; hence they 
keep clear of these hosannah places. Such prefer 
common prayer-book and machine religion. But take 
one who is recovering from sickness, where food is 
being measured out to a craving appetite. What a 
pleasure to see others eat ! How it excites his appe- 
tite ! So in the kingdom. Let a person, though 
15 



216 SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 

having small relish for the holy, and very weak, 
enter a strong, religious meeting, and how it puts the 
soul longing for the heavenly ! 

Finally, the promise: " Shall be filled ! n Glory 
to God ! Immortal cravings can be satisfied ! There 
is something in the universe equal to the vast want of 
mind. " Shall be filled ! " This is the law of the 
Divine Infinitudes, to fill everything that comes; 
from high arch-angel down to babe in Christ. There 
are no degrees, or limits, in the Infinite. The seat 
and center of infinitudes are in him. 

Every one carries in himself the measure of his own 
receiving. The question, then, is not, how much can 
God give, but how much can we receive? Let it be 
more or less, fulhiess everywhere is the low water- 
mark of the kingdom, and if we let the Spirit have 
his way in us, if we do not interrupt this influx of 
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, 
we shall be made to run over with heaven before God 
says it is enough. 

This is not our fashion in dispensing earthly goods. 
We measure out with exactness, and the law prescribes 
how we shall strike the measures of grain ; but if our 
storehouses were inexhaustible, and our benevolence 
equal to the supply, we would throw our measures to 
the winds, and give every one who came all he could 
carry away, and then throw a good scoop-full after 
him, as much as to say, when you want more, come 
again, for you see I have plenty. 

I once went to a brother for grain ; he filled the 



SOUL-HUNGER SATISFIED. 217 

bags without measuring. When I offered to pay, he 
said, The pay is this, that when you are out, come 
again. This is grace for grace ! 

A brother in Waterford was very guarded and 
measured in his representations of the work of the 
Spirit in himself. I asked him why he was so care- 
ful with his words on this point. He said, "I don't 
like to say too much." That is right ; but go on to 
know the Lord, my brother, and your soul will soon 
get out of the reach of your tongue ; for God's salva- 
tion takes us into the Unspeakable — above what we 
are able to speak or think ! 

Now, my friends, are you filled ? If so, you are 
satisfied ; there is no hankering for carnal pleasures, 
for the leeks and onions of Egypt ; from these we are 
only cured in the taste of milk and honey in Canaan. 

We close with one contrast. In literal eating, we 
graduate the quantity by the appetite, and when the 
relish ceases, we are through ; no disposition to eat 
more. Not so in spiritual things ; here the relish 
never abates by eating, but to the reverse, it increases. 
The soul is never cloyed with things heavenly, by 
the superabundance. 

What then? We are just filled — filled with an 
unabated love for more, but don't want, because w r e 
are filled. 

Friends, are you satisfied in Christ, and with Christ ? 
If not, 3 r ou have not yet reached the Divine fullness. 
Brother, I beseech you, don't be satisfied with present 
attainments, while you are in a condition of unrest 



218 LETTER TO A DISHEARTENED MINISTER. 

from unsatisfied wants ; neither be discouraged from 
this dissatisfaction ; this hungering for righteousness 
is the best evidence you have, perhaps, that God is 
with you. Then the strongest ho!d and the best hope 
the Spirit has of you, is in this same distress. 

O my dear fellow pilgrim, cherish this groaning 
after God, but don't administer cordials in your songs. 
Let this groan go through to the great conclusion, 
where, lifting up holy hands, you exclaim, "I am 
filled!" Amen. 



LETTER TO A DISHEARTENED MINISTER. 

[We need hardly inform those who have read 
" Shocks from the Battery, " that the following ex- 
tract is from the pen that wrote that quaint, but 
tremendously earnest volume. — Ed.] 

# # * # Now about soul matters. You com- 
plain of shattered nerves, melancholy, etc. I wish, 
Brother W., we could meet, for it seems that I could 
help you, as I have been in the downcast state, and 
fear I may be again. But at present I almost live on 
thoughts of holy things. 

After being weighed down with infirmities, and 
buffeted by devils, it is refreshing to be able now 
and then to reach the observatory of faith, and look 
out over New Testament scenery — to walk about 
Zion, mark her bulwarks, and name her towers. 

Yes, a brighter day is dawning ! I tell you, 
Brother W., it has seemed of late, that I am where 



LETTER TO A DISHEARTENED MINISTER. 219 

Abraham took his last look into this noon dispensa- 
tion. I just set his old telescope square on the 
evergreen slopes of Gospel Canaan, and saw the fruit 
shake like Lebanon It's where the pilgrims go up 
to sun themselves and get the old corn of the county. 
Vinelaud and Manheim have proved two rich corn- 
fields for hungry souls. 

Now, my dear, modest Brother, disappointed on 
every hand, and oppressed with poverty, as you say, 
if the earthly rills run dry, and the little pools get 
roily, go to the headwaters ; push out into the Lord's 
great kingdom — Amazon; then dip deep. If you can- 
not be supplied all round, be sure to feel rich within. 
I am poor in myself — don't know where the next 
dollar is to come from ; but mj^ soul is blest — at 
times become so sublimely happy that I cannot write. 
Then I walk the floor, and sing, and pray, and praise; 
then laugh, cry, stamp my feet, clap my hands, and 
what more can I do ? And yet the measure runs 
over all around the brim, even after being pressed 
down. I am like a mill, with such a mistake in the 
machinery, that the hopper fills faster than the stones 
can grind. So you see grinding don't help the case 
at all. The more I preach and write, and think and 
talk, the fuller I am. O, the depths, the depths, the 
heights 1 Some mills run on bare stones ; they are 
known by the emptiness of their sound, and the good, 
honest souls, are aware of it themselves. Hence, the 
endless fixiug and doctoring of the manner. (Preach 
before the looking-glass, for instance.) Oil the 



220 LETTER TO A DISHEARTENED MINISTER. 

machinery, change the gearing, then take up the 
stones, peck them over, then go to rumbling again. 
I pity the dear souls, for they want to go right. 

But look here, my friend, the trouble is not where 
you think it is. The mechanism is all right ; tongue, 
tone, hands and height are well enough. What then 
is the matter? Just run a broad tube into the store- 
loft; bring down the corn; stop rumbling, and give 
us a full grist. 

I tell you, Brother W., it's this heavy grinding that 
stills down the empty clatter of machinery. If you 
want music from a mill, either literal or spiritual, 
such as hungry folks like to have, put the stones 
wading through grain. 

My experience runs in the opposite order from the 
Saviour's, if it is reverent to speak thus. With him 
it was from the opening heavens, and the Father's 
outbeaming approval, into the wilderness, to be 
tempted of the devil. 

With me the wilderness comes first, I suppose to 
let me feel how weak I am, and by these contrasts 
turn me to a longing for the heavenly, for I have been 
through the darkest wilderness of late that I have 
seen for years. There is one place in me, above all 
others, where, if the devil gets a firm hold, he is 
sure to bring me low. It is just here, u You can't do 
any good." So I stand by faith only — faith against 
common sense — faith against my best reasoning — faith 
against all creation, at times, for there seems to be 
nothing on my side. And this I judge to be your 



MAX'S QUARREL. 221 

trouble, Brother W. But put yourself where the 
Lord will be responsible, both for you and your work, 
for there is such a position. Sell out your stock in 
trade to the main proprietor, and go into business 
under him; then how much better one sleeps who 
works by the day. Not that you are the one who 
needs such preaching, for j^ou are not apt to think 
you have anything to sell. I write it because it just 
came to me, and it's too good a figure to be lost. 
But mark this, my friend, if you are too poor to sell, 
don't count yourself too poor to buy. Do you say^ 
How can I, when I have nothing to pay ? Buy on 
credit ! Only see that your surety is in the transac- 
tion. God carries on his kingdom by trusting. The 
mightiest ones of earth, as well as those who have 
departed, those esteemed as millionaires, went into 
debt the heaviest of all, not one of whom could sur- 
vive a day to have their accounts closed up. 



MAN'S QUARREL. 

[Extract from a Sermon by Rev. B. Pomeroy, in?M.. H. I.] 

The universal quarrel of man seems to aim at God^ 
but in reality, it is mostly with himself. This animal; 
nature, this body, along with some of the fallen 
powers of the mind, claim precedence and dominion 
over the kingdom of man. The chief dispute seema 
to be this : That man has no business to have but on© 
nature ; but if he has two or more, when the body is 



222 man's quarrel. 

made comfortable, and all its wants gratified, there 
ought to be no complaining of the other part. That 
the soul has no right to exist, except as servant to 
the body, and ought to be contented with a servant's 
portion, the remnants of life, the remnants of strength, 
and the remnants of time ; that youthfulness and 
manhood-vigor are too precious to be squandered on 
that thing of soul. That both parts ought to be 
satisfied with the same entertainments, except that 
the body is to be served first, w T ith soul as waiter ; in 
short, that the soul has no rights or claims, that the 
animal nature is bound to respect, at least till near 
death. That this everlasting sigh for things spiritual 
and holy, ought to be stifled out of us. Brother man ! 
reverse the direction of the quarrel from God to self 
altogether. 

The Lord is only treating you according to your- 
self — according to the diversity of your wants; treat- 
ing you as you are, and as you eternally must be, for 
whether it's a blessing, or a curse, you and I are 
beyond being revoked, either in this world or the 
next. 

God has set us going, but the prerogative is with 
us to say how we will go, and where we will go, but 
go we must. 

Come, my friend, don't spite the Lord for this 
trouble. Cease thy cursing and bitterness at the Infi- 
nite. He is not to blame for this quarrel, unless by 
mistake some persons have got into the wrong class 
of beings. 



MEASURE OF MORAL POWER. 223 

For one to cherish such a spite against his soul, as 
to deny its right to be himself, ought to have been 
made an animal altogether. 

For this celestial being, just because he is coupled 
with a mortal body, to court affinity with animals by 
denying the wants and rights of the soul, is blas- 
phemy against himself. 

Friend, you may deny your bod}' — you may shake 
off this clay-house home, sending the body to the land 
of corruption in one hour; but who will abnegate 
himself? Who will shake off the everywhere present 
me of man? 



MEASURE OF MORAL POWER. 

To be worthy the credence of an unbelieving world, 
the professor of religion must prove himself to be 
more than man. The creed, the conscience, and the 
instinct of the world, demand the superhuman in 
religion. 

Supplement the church member with all possible 
advantages and acquirements of which his natural 
nature is capable, and yet for all that he is not a 
mystery; the outside throng comprehend his nature 
and his actings. For his outward movements are on 
a line with refined human nature the world over. 

In all his honesty of intercourse, his refined 
morality, his sacred songs and precise prayers ; in all 
these he has not transgressed against depraved nature, 
or gone beyond the inventions of aboriginal man. 



224 MEASURE OF MORAL POWER. 

All he feels and all he does, is comprehended by 
unredeemed men all about him. 

He is only a duplicate of old depravity in a better 
dress — only a human being within, with more outside 
to him — that's all. 

Even the profane and vulgar understand full well, 
that death will soon unwind him down to what they 
are ; while the advantages of a comparison at the 
judgment are expected on the side of no religion, 
rather than that hypocrisy should stand in sacred 
dress, approved at last. 

But when we come to God's second-birth children 
— to the saints of the Most High, we come to the 
marvel and mystery of earth and heaven both. 

Not a superadded quality — not a surface appendage, 
a dressing over of the leopard spots, with the old leop- 
ard nature left within, but a deep impartation of God 
to soul — an inborn life — a life so divine and eternal 
as shall run clear of death's anatomy in both worlds. 

A life sustained from a foreign source, whose heart 
is quite above the reach of murderous hands — a life 
nourished at a banquet too rare and spiritual for this 
w r orld's providing — a life whose hopes and fears — 
whose joys and sorrows — whose aspirations and pros- 
pects, so cross and contradict all the experiences of 
this world-life, as to confound the metaphysics of 
earth, and baffle the cunning of hell. 

He who can be comprehended as a professing 
Christian, is suspected even by infidelity, of hypoc- 
risy, or of being deceived. 



MEASURE OF MORAL POWER. 225 

Now we come to a point. What is the amount of 
the superhuman in you ? 

What is the depth of the mystery of you ? Which 
nature predominates, the divine or the self nature ? 
These questions relate to the measure of your spiritual 
power — to your mastery over wrong — to your personal 
ability for good. 

The mystery of the being is increased in the eyes 
of the world, when the} 7 see great advantages and 
qualifications made to subserve the spiritual interests 
— when riches, instead of being squandered on lusts 
and laziness, as is natural, or hoarded up for unborn 
heirs, are made to tell on suffering humanity and the 
spiritual wants of the world. 

When great gifts and great learning, instead of 
puffing up, are used to increase the efficiency of the 
meek and humble possessor of them, in making others 
like himself, holy. O, what beating the air is this, to 
substitute gifts for grace, or learning for inspiration ! 
What atheism this, to put man in the place of the Holy 
Ghost, for the subjugation of this world to Christ ! 

Friend and reader, let me come to the point close. 
What evidence have spectators that you are of God, 
and not of this world ? 

What are you doing as a source of happiness, that 
human nature has never been known to do ? 

Wherein do you cross and contradict the pleasures 
of refined carnality ? In short, wherein are you more 
than man? O yes, if a saint, you are sustained by 
a life so high, so holy and strange to this fallen world, 



226 MEASURE OF MORAL POWER. 

as to leave you a problem too deep for human philos- 
ophy to fathom, while others say he hath a devil, 
and that's the reason. 

O ye saints of the Lord, it's your prerogative to 
be that and do that which no human being ever was, 
or ever did alone. 

It is not only your privilege, but your absolute duty, 
to authenticate the God of you, by transcending 
humanity at all the life points. 

Yes, be where you can rejoice when the world 
weeps — be where your tide shall come in when the 
world's tide goes out. 

Let the impulses of your nature — the throbbings 
of your life, contradict the depraved life-tides of 
sixty centuries ! 

Resist the unholy customs, though they may have 
been baptized and confirmed ; breast the turbid tide 
of deathly influence and drive a breach through these 
fog-lands of night, as an imported existence — a high- 
born of God ! Leaving the guess of mortals in 
doubt of your beginning or ending. 

Do you call this extravagant ? Then let us turn 
to the sober Bible. 

"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ 
in God." 

u Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth 
in me." 

And what shall I say to those who have gifts, learn- 
ing and money? With these advantages which 3-011 
are supposed to bring forth as superadded witnesses 



CHURCH AMUSEMENTS. 227 

for truth and God, there ought not to be a doubt left 
of your high origin. 

Let the strange, unearthly way in which you dis- 
pense money, perplex the wisdom of the wise, for if 
the world by wisdom never yet came to know God, 
neither can it know the born of God. Eise above 
the religion of the world, and contradict the instincts 
of fallen nature. 



CHURCH AMUSEMENTS. 

[Rev. B. Pomeroy, of Waterford, N. Y., rises to 
speak. We are glad to welcome so famous a brother 
to our meeting. He wishes to administer a shock 
from his battery on a subject which is evidently excit- 
ing much attention. His shocks won't hurt, though 
they most decidedly hit. — Ed. Zion's Herald.] 

I notice in your Social Meeting an article written 
by W. D. P. I was ready to inquire, Can this brother 
be a Methodist ? He says these entertainments of 
church fairs — these social amusements, etc., are a 
profit, both temporal and spiritual, to any church or 
society. Now, Bro. P., if you will substitute some 
for any, before church, I will almost agree with you. 
For there are persons organized into societies, with 
splendid temples, high rented seats, where they meet 
to hear moral essays, where the}' have some grand 
machine performances at one end of the building, if 
not at both. Now it is doubtful if such a society 
would be hurt by church fairs, or by a ball, if it were 



228 CHURCH AMUSEMENTS. 

in a good place, and the dance opened by a minister's 
prayer ; and as such are not apt to attend class and 
prayer meetings, where Christians become acquainted, 
church fairs might help on an acquaintance with the 
members of the circle, and promote social happiness, 
such as it is. But when you come to the church of 
God, to the crucified and risen with Christ, who walk 
with him in holy fellowship, away with this nonsense. 

This longing after the world's little pleasures, this 
hankering for the old leeks and onions of Egypt, has 
in it the sign of relapse. Our only cure of Egypt lies 
in entering Canaan, and if the milk and hone}' of that 
land cannot cure me of garlics, I would not cross Jor- 
dan for all it has. I tell Brother P. plainly, and not 
in parables, that a religion which fails to take the 
relish of sin out of us is radically defective. This 
going to the church for character and to the world 
for pleasure, is a fraud on true religion. 

Then has it come to this, that the benevolence of 
religion is not equal to its wants; that we dare not risk 
Christianity on its own merits, but must cater to the 
low passions for a supply of funds? Hear the con- 
tract. Give us an aristocratic frolic, dignified with 
prayer, and we will give you fifty cents each. 

This writer asks if any one is so bigoted as to sup- 
pose that a Christian man or woman would lower 
themselves by engaging in these social amusements. 
Bigotry is not essential to the supposition; it's only 
spirituality, my Brother, that's all; and there are 
multitudes who are so spotless and pure, that to in- 



REPLY TO INQUIRER. 229 

dulofe in these carnalities would darken their souls like 
an eclipse at noon. My pity is for those who are in 
such a state that these vanities do not hurt them. It 's 
the pure in spirit who feel contact w r ith wrong. If we 
are to come out from the world and be separate, I will 
ask Brother P. where he would have us go ? The Lord 
save us from the floods of baptized ungodliness. Amen. 



REPLY TO INQUIRER OF NOV. 21st. 

[For The Methodist Home Journal.] 

My Dear Friend — I am interested in your case, as 
you represent so large a class in our Zion, and shall 
show my interest in trying to do you good. Whether 
I succeed in the essential point is doubtful, especially 
on this arm's length plan. But it is doing a kind of 
good for one to try to help another. 

You say, " I believe all the Bible says of Christ, 
and feel that I am justified through his blood,'' " yet 
was never more conscious of inbred sin in my soul ; 
am anxious to obtain the blessing of entire sanctifica- 
tion. Who will tell me, in simple words, through the 
Journal, how to obtain it ? " 

My friend, I consider you orthodox in j^our objec- 
tions to the three expedients proposed by friends for 
your relief, viz.: First, " Believe that Christ does save 
now." Probably they have got you along a little too 
fast. Such a faith is the final triumph of the struggle. 
I say final ; for to believe that Christ has saved, after 



230 REPLY TO INQUIRER. 

he has actually wrought the work, and after believing 
that he does save, can hardly be called the triumph- 
point in the struggle ; it may be considered the cli- 
max of the work, but not of the conflict. 

Perhaps, in your after experience, it may come to 
be at times one contest of your faith that he did then 
and there save, but not at first. 

I expect, however, that you will soon reach the 
crowning degree ; when faith, concentrated into the 
narrow compass of now, in this mysterious struggle, 
shall be able, as with naked hands, to lay hold of 
your all-sufficiency in Christ, exclaiming " He can — 
He does — save me — now ! ■! But, my friend, when 
you do thus believe, it will not be because anxiou3 
friends exhort you to it, though they may encourage 
you in it, neither will it be because you will to believe 
he saves me now ; but for this reason, more than any 
other on earth, that he doeth it. Evidently you are 
on a bar somewhere, as the mariners say, and it's my 
business to help you find where you are held. 

I have no idea that it will be found in the relation 
of your faith to God, although our teachers generally 
take it for granted that the difficulty lies in that direc- 
tion with the most of pe* sons ; hence the clear and 
strong representations of Christ's ability and readi- 
ness to save ; hence also, the exhortation, believe that 
he can, and even that he does now save ; as if to break 
the spell of doubt by springing faith upon them, 
which is all proper, provided the subject is what he is 
taken to be. But there lies the mistake, often. The 



REPLY TO INQUIRER. 231 

dear anxious ones are administering to a foreign char- 
acter. They proceed on the supposition that these 
seekers of pardon or of sanctification are in the dark 
night of despair, so oppressed with a sense of sin and 
guilt that they are beyond the pale of redeeming 
mercy, when, fact, they appear rather comfortable. 

To me it would be happiness to witness an old- 
fashioned case of despair ; have not seen one in 
twenty-six years ; it would be just where I could 
preach Christ in faith, as a present Saviour. 

Faith is both an effect and a cause. We err when 
we treat it only as a cause, without reference to its 
perfection as an effect (I mean the instrumental cause). 
Saving faith, as an effect, is produced partly by 
necessity, and partly by the Word and Spirit. What 
I mean by necessitated faith, grows out of losing our 
life as the condition of finding it ; the killing before 
making alive ; or, as the apostle has it, sin revived 
and I died. 

This impoverishment, wounding, dying and killing 
by the law and Spirit, reveals our need of Christ's 
atonement, applied by faith. And here, I apprehend, 
is the key to the failure of so many seekers of salva- 
tion. They propose to hold on to the old life till 
they make sure of the new ; can hardly consent to 
die to the pleasures of sin on the credit of Jesus 
Christ's promise to bring them to life in him. Why 
should they be in a strait for God, when provided for 
as they are ? With both hands full of the old life, 
they can seek the new at their leisure. They say it 
16 



232 REPLY TO INQUIRER. 

is their purpose to trust in Christ, and think they do, 
but have no power — no confidence — no triumph. The 
Lord bless your honest soul ! But is this about your 
position? One foot on the Eock of Ages, and the 
other on your own shore, and do you see how nicely 
balanced you are toward the shore ? Is that faith in 
another or in self? My friend, this mysterious transi- 
tion is not made in that genteel way* 

It is not from shore to rock, as by one dignified 
step ; but is down — down — shore and all — -carrying 
the broken reeds and self-reliances dow r n into self- 
wretchedness and ruin, so that what was counted 
gain but yesterday, goes for loss to-day. 

God don't touch a soul till it founders ! Now, what 
if Eock of Ages had sunk while you stood with one 
foot on it ? or, without a figure, had the Divine prom- 
ise failed in your case ? 

Don't you see you are all safe ? Then how grace- 
ful^ you could have fallen back on your other hope ; 
then gone in w r ith the full unbelievers without losing 
caste. The Holy Ghost will have us so committed to 
this great salvation, with respect to our faith— its 
singleness of trust — our purpose — our practice and 
profession — that were the immutable word to fail, we 
are spoiled and ruined for earth and heaven both. 
This is consecration without proviso. 

Friend Inquirer, are you there ? Are you where, if 
you fail in reaching the sanctified state, it would dam- 
age you religiously too much for home-mending? 

If you are there, you need not wait ; this is no place 



REPLY TO INQUIRER. 233 

to wait at ; indeed, you will have no time to wait ; 
whatever touches God's altar with such a desperation 
and forlornness of hope and faith, shall find the seal 
and ratification of the covenant, quick as thought, in 
the inward Abba Father cry. 

Now, my friend, dare you stake your all of reputa- 
tion — of character — happiness — usefulness, and hope 
of eternal heaven, on your last chance in Jesus Christ ? 
Chance, did I say? Rather, immutable certainty. 

For desperate faith carries the soul quite beyond 
peradventure. But mark this, God don't save him 
who stands between hopes ! Christ is after the lost. 
Nearly all the doubt and danger with seekers of salva- 
tion, is connected with the despoiling process, called 
in Scripture, " losing one's life — crucifixion," etc. But 
don't be discouraged, burdened one ; for it is when 
the poor soul is carried too far out to fall back on 
himself, or his own goodness — out beyond human hope 
or help — there stands the Rock of Ages cleft to take 
you in ! Glory to God ! It looks well there, just 
where it ought to stand, and whoever finds it will 
know the signification of " Rock." 

A soul passing through the process of losing his 
life, gets beyond danger when he leaves his last alter- 
native behind. The immutable promise — the faithful- 
ness of God is trusted, when there is nothing else to 
trust. But mark this, the depraved heart don't go 
to God as if in a strait, with a good stock of untried 
expedients on hand. 

Who that stands with an advantage over the most 



234 REPLY TO INQUIRER. 

of bis fellows, with respect to reputation, moral 
character, intelligence, refined taste and good sense, 
with perhaps gifts, many, and great zeal for his 
church (which make up the chief qualities of the 
popular religion), that can afford to go into religious 
bankruptcy on so large a capital, counting these great 
gains as dross and loss, for the hidden life of God ? 

Who, on the authority and credit of Jesus Christ. 
dare break down and sink into the dust, with groan- 
ings and pleadings for the blood of atonement, with 
a pathos that moves God and men ? 

Who dares thus sink in faith ? 

That I call man's sublimest act. It is that desper- 
ate, daring act of faith, by which infinite God is made 
responsible, both for the sinking and the rising again. 
Faith is seen in sinking. God is seen in the rising. 

Let me say it with emphasis, a soul in such a case, 
with such a faith, going to his knees, finds his God. 
Christ and such faith were made to meet, and they 
will meet, though it were by moonlight. Faith rising 
from the home wreck and ruin of all our hopes and 
helps, with the garment of self-righteousness flung to 
the winds, and all things counted loss ; faith, impelled 
by such necessity and encouraged by the divine 
promise, is a most vehement thing of one idea. The 
cry is. Give me Jesus, or I die. 

Friend and reader, will you ponder this assertion, 
viz.: It requires more real faith to disbelieve in our- 
selves than it does to believe in God, especially after 
disbelieving in ourselves. 



OYER ANXIOUS FOR THE CAUSE. 235 

The straight £ate to the kingdom is where we let 
go of ourselves. Taking hold of God comes natural, 
after letting go of everything else ; such empty hands 
stretch away to God with unwonted directness and 
force, such as is not easily turned aside. 

Now, Inquirer (whom I take to be a minister), do 
you find in all this a clue to your difficulty ? If not, 
speak again. The Lord lead you, with others of 
your state of mind, to himself for the fullness of your 
desires. 



OVER ANXIOUS FOE THE CAUSE. 

Hush my fears. Am I responsible for the manner 
of Christ's kingdom on earth ? Am I special custo- 
dian of the reputation of the upper throne, that I 
should steady this modern ark in its doubtful jost- 
lings ! Now let trembling hands and puny mortals 
give way ; let great redemption come down unto the 
corner-stones of God's own laying — let these ponder- 
ous interests of time touch the Almighty props when 
human weakness shall let go. God is master of his 
own tumults. Now let rushing mighty wind sweep 
along, unfixing the precision of formality, confound- 
ing the learned babble of unholy lips, inspiring words 
that cantiot be gainsaid. O, for the free course of 
heaven over this earth ! Am I ordained to go forth as 
an apologist for the strange and marvelous operations 
of the Hoty Ghost in man ? By no means ! Neither, 
on the other hand, am I to mistake the fictitious and 



236 NEW IDEAS NOT WANTED. 

whimsical for the spirit, or call nervous delusions, 
holy inspirations. 

O, for such wisdom as knows God, from man ! 



NEW IDEAS NOT WANTED.* 

BY KEY. B. POMEROY. 

A certain minister was complained of, not long 
ago, for preaching too strong truth, and giving his 
hearers too many new ideas. All he said the} 7 admit- 
ted to be truth, but it was stumbling the people. 
He inquired what good it did to such to read the 
Bible ? " Well, they expected to find such things in 
the Bible." 

Now, Mr. Editor, for one, I need patience with 
these gray-headed babies ; some of them have been 
sozzling over their milk cups for twenty years. Then 
I should like to know where so many babies come 
from. Do they all belong to the family ; or are they 
brought in by having the gate to the kingdom made 
wider ? Let us compare fathers and mothers 
who live on milk, and see how the members look. 
But we will take courage since so many churches are 
becoming strong of late. 

Then, some persons can hardlj r afford the tug and 
toil of thought; they require the minister to think 
the ground all over for them, with this proviso, that 

* For The Methodist Home Journal. 



NEW IDEAS XOT WANTED. 237 

they are not to go out of the range of old ideas and 
old orthodox words, such as their ears are used to ; 
as these old, smooth sounds don't tingle so and jar 
their nerves. But O, reel it off fast, like a quick- 
moving anthem, that's the kind we want. But for a 
minister to preach as though he believed liis own 
talk, and then to ask his hearers to believe it and! 
practice it, is a little too old-fashioned for this smart 
age. We want concert preaching, such as rolls out 
smooth, like thunder out of town ; but away with 
your lightning, especially this slant lightning, ^vhen 
no one can tell what fashionable wrong will be 
struck next, keeping us in a perpetual cringe at all 
the sin-points of our nature. Then away with new 
ideas also, especially when they interrupt the smooth 
glide of old customs and old sins. " We have been 
confirmed, and woe to him who unconfirms us. We 
can't be interrupted with new ideas, when it costs too 
much wear and tear to investigate them ; just give us- 
the old, smooth sounds that don't scare our nerves — 
roll on in the old ruts of a hundred vears smoothing, 
then we shall know where vou are aoinof. But mind 
ye, don't you cross the track of anything in this 
church. Preach to sinners ; we are all right." 

I declare, Mr. Editor, if it isn't provoking at this- 
age of holy enterprise — this noon of the world, to be- 
interrupted with the clatter of old wooden sandala 
just coming out of the Mosaic dispensation, with both 
hands up crying out, " Too much excitement in 
religion." Well, well, my old, dusty friend, just out 



238 NEW IDEAS NOT WANTED. 

of a mummy pyramid, if you expect to regulate this 
world, you had better unhook from the dark ages and 
come this way. In the providence of God our exist- 
ence is signalized by great advantages. We should 
look upon it as no trifle, that we have been postponed 
to this late period in the world's progression and 
momentum : where we are exalted to the highest 
noon of all the ages and dispensations known to the 
race; where Methuselahs are produced before the 
sunrise of that old man. This generation is in the 
head march of intellectual and moral grandeur. Pro- 
gression is like morning, driving up against the future 
under the tiiotight-momentum of six thosand years, 
saying, u Stand back here and let the mighty onward 
through ! " 

This is a wonderful period in the world's grand 
march; nearly all the processes, both in nature and 
art, have been quickened or otherwise improved since 
my remembrance. Even lightning has been educated 
to go on a straight line over and above its old zigzag 
fashion. 

Everything in creation seems to feel the rush of 
the age, except the tick of the clock, and even here 
old people are confident that a new sprightliness has 
come into the swing of the old pendulum, at least the 
hours get around sooner than they did in old-fashioned 
times. The birth of a drone at such a period as this 
is a sad blunder. 

Don't want new ideas ! Ah, then, what will you do, 
for you can't even turn an old idea round once, under 



NEW IDEAS NOT WANTED. 



239 



the look of a late-born intellect, without finding some- 
thin^ new. How humiliating at such a time as 
this, to see old respectable families running out and 
runnino- clown to nothing. We have youno* men in 
droves, who practically say, the chief end and aim of 
our being is to laze about, smoke, drink, gamble, 
swear, and commit depredations, all on the credit of 
father's will. 

With these facts before us, is it not unaccountable 
that even good fathers and mothers all through the 
land are working the life oat of them to hoard more 
mone}' for their darling drones ? For once let us look 
out on that class of genteel shiftlessness, who are rid- 
ing through life on the swells produced by the indus- 
try and respectability of generations buried — whose 
best claim to decent humanity comes from the dead. 
Poor, unfortunate ones, I pity them, though I thus 
speak. For there is not so much moral stamina in the 
whole soul and body of them as was common to their 
grandfathers' dreams. 

Poor, driveling, drabbling characters, the mere 
froth and foam of a wave that has come proudly 
through a hundred years to break on a muddy shore 
at last ! Then, on the other hand, we have young 
men who come up bare-footed and bare-headed, 
snatching here and there an opportunity from the 
pinching poverty, who are grappling with the stern 
realities of life, as if equal to the emergencies of a 
generation. 

Don't want new ideas, do we ? Be patient, Mr. Edi- 



240 NEW IDEAS NOT WANTED. 

tor, for I am bound to give that stupid thought a lash 
on all sides before I quit. Just as though a few mortals 
down on these low grounds had gone over all the 
zones and degrees, the landscapes and labors of New 
Testament revelations ; that mind had swept through 
the outmost range of holy thought, where it looked 
over into nothing, with the last seal opened and 
exhausted. 

No, no, my reader, we are not so far advanced in 
experimental godliness as our intellects might indi- 
cate. We are small in faith and holy daring, when 
compared with the old champions, for truth and right- 
eousness. We are not equal to the martyrs in tribu- 
lations, nor in triumphs, neither in holy attainments. 

Don't want new ideas ? I hope we are not so 
egotistic as to suppose that we have comprehended 
the wondrous theme of God in Christ Jesus — that 
while the great master-mind of the Apostles ex- 
claimed, " Great is the mystery of godliness; God 
was manifested in the flesh;" then, again, " Oh, the 
depths of the mystery," etc., shall we say we know 
enough of such depths — don't want new ideas? The 
infinitudes center in Christ Jesus. Have we gone 
through the infinitudes ? Redemption is like an 
acrostic ; it is to be studied up and down — down as 
low as the bottomless pit, for it takes in all that 
mioditv range from highest heaven all along* down the 
broad road of destruction, gathering brands from the 
fiery portals of hell — brands that are to be quenched 
in the blood of atonement. 



NEW IDEAS NOT WANTED, 241 

Again, it is to be studied in the past and in the 
future ; read it as we may, Jesus is the final spelling 
of all the types and all the shadows. Jesus is the 
history of the past. Jesus is the prediction of the 
future. Two everlastings touching in the glorious 
present — everlastings smoking redolent to-day in the 
odor of Calvary's offering ! Redemption is the undy- 
ing excitement of heaven ; it has kept angels restless 
for ages ! Redemption is the grand topic of eternity 
that 's to thrill and fill the mighty years through to the, 
other side of duration. Xow open the wide gates of 
your soul and take in the great purposes of heaven. 
Don't content yourself with merely reading the travels 
of others ; wrench monotony out of the little circle 
ruts, and make a new track on the field of thought of 
your own. But don't be discouraged and conclude 
you are not the one to know much, because it is hard 
work to think. A subject that fails to bring sweat 
from a thinker is hardly worth his time. For mercy's 
sake, push out somewhere, at least so far that you can't 
get back without asking questions. It's so refreshing 
in this age of dissipation, to find one thinking enough 
to ask questions. 

There are continents of holy entertainment unex- 
plored, while the entrance to the kingdom is crow T ded 
with halting, hesitating souls who want no more new 
ideas — at least such as come through holy experience. 
As if unwilling to break friendship with a vain world, 
they linger in the outer court. With the verdancy of 
Emanuel's grounds stretching off over the Lebanons 



242 CONSECRATION I ITS 

and Pisgahs of spiritual Canaan, they have stopped 
to balance the pleasures of a carnal world against the 
glories of Jesus Christ. 

Excuse these random thoughts, for they were taken 
like fish in a net, great and small mixed. 



CONSECRATION: ITS RELATIONS TO 
SAVING FAITH. 

Perhaps the more critical points in our salvation in 
general, and in justification and sanctification in par- 
ticular, in these times, relate to consecration. 

Were we heathens, having but few things to count 
as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
Jesus, and no reputation to take care of, with only a 
heathen's idea of the atonement, the difficulty might 
be found in the department of believing. But with 
the present intelligence of the Church, faith is rarely 
hindered by sheer ignorance of Christ, or how we are 
to believe in him. 

Justification, as well as sanctification, being the 
resultant point, or the end and aim of all the pre- 
requisites, and failing just here where we expected to 
realize the long desired change, we are apt to attri- 
bute the failure to the nearest act, which is the believ- 
ing act, especially when faith is made the condition 
on which God has promised to do the work. Hence 
the special effort to pet, and coax, and encourage faith 
aloii£. 



RELATIONS TO SAYING FAITH. 243 

For instance, look at this expedient to help poor 
souls out of disappointment. When simplified, it 
amounts to this : believe in your own believing : that 
is, because, when you prayed for pardon or holiness, 
as the case might be, you believed with all your 
heart that the Lord would then and there make good 
his promise and save \ r ou ; therefore you are saved. 
Now. my friend, speak for yourself, were you saved? 

Well, I don't know, though I believed the Lord 
was doing the work, and they say I must believe that 
the work has been accomplished because I complied 
with the condition. 

That looks plausible, it is true, but were you ever 
there before ? Did you ever pass through the expe- 
rience of faith's definite triumphant struggle? How, 
then, could you know that your faith was of the effi- 
cacious character, except from the results ? Are you 
now satisfied ? 

To be honest about it, the change was not what I 
expected. I feel, too, a want of moral power. In 
this particular I seem no more than I was before, am 
awed by the opinions of the world, and tremble in 
my weakness before the plain command of God, as 
formerly. I wish 3^011 would pray for me, that I 
may be endued with power from on high for my 
work. 

Yes, I will, but recollect that power does not come 
alone. It is not a mere appendage of Christian char- 
acter that may be lost off. It is a constituent prop- 
erty of holiness as a state. Who can be strong and 



244 CONSECRATION : ITS 

confident, when the best evidence he has of being 
saved is the performance of some duty, or religious 
act, though sincerely done? 

Now, my friend, believe that you are neither par- 
doned nor sanctified, for an} r reason on earth, or any 
where else, except for the great and glorious fact that 
it is so — not from any inference, analogy, or compari- 
son with others, but from the inward " Abba Father" 
cry I The indwelling Divine shall put power into thy 
weakness. And nothing less than this persuasion by 
the Holy Ghost, this witness of the Spirit, can make 
any one confident in truth and daring in things holy. 

It strikes me that our chief perplexity arises from 
overlooking the fact that faith is as well a result, as 
it is an exercise or au inspiration. Or, if it is not a 
result in the proper sense, it has its conditions, which 
are as imperative as those of pardon or holiness, and 
more numerous. 

Saving faith, as the crowning act on our part, some- 
what resembles the intercessions of the ancient high 
priest. His acceptance as an intercessor authenticates 
all the prerequisites to that office, as intercession is 
the final act in atonement. 

But a priest is struck dead, and for what? Not 
but that the intercession was right, as far as that duty 
was concerned, but certain ceremonies, on which the 
validity of intercession depended, had been omitted 
— the sanctuary had not been sprinkled with blood, 
or the trespass offering had been neglected, or some 
other violation of the ceremonial code had occurred, 



RELATIONS TO SAYING FAITH. 245 

which passed unmarked, until the priest entered the 
holy of holies, where the Divine Presence frowned 
on the transactions of that holy place, on account of 
disobedience in some of the preliminaries to that office. 
So the system of salvation, under the Gospel, has its 
test points. 

A full and pure consecration has its test in a victo- 
rious faith ; an efficacious faith has its test in the 
promised results, viz., the salvation itself. Hence 
we may fail in the final transaction, as well from a 
half-hearted consecration as from a defective faith, as 
saving faith depends in part on an honest consecration. 

Perhaps j t ou are ready to inquire, why it is that 
faith must necessarily prove unavailing from a partial 
or imperfect consecration. Is it not in this that in 
exempting certain precious preferences from the gene- 
ral offering, we necessarily divide the heart between 
opposing interests, which, from the nature of things, 
must divide the faith ? A bewildered faith may result 
from ignorance, but a divided faith comes from a 
divided heart. " Beloved, if our hearts condemn us 
not, then have we confidence toward God." Disbelief 
connects directly with a divided heart. Oh, the sinning 
and sighing — the condemnation and bewilderment of a 
divided heart, standing between two interests, between 
two desires, when Christ is one of the two, balancing 
everlasting life against some carnal pleasure or selfish 
end, there for weeks and months holding Infinite God 
on a par with a toy, in doubt over a choice that 
involves destinj^ eternal. . 



246 CONSECRATION : ITS 

How pitiable the condition of those whose intellect 
and conscience are on the side of truth ; whose con- 
victions sanction the exceeding broad command ; who 
perceive already a beauty in Christ, and even desire 
him in the fullness of his redeeming merit ; who are 
"almost," but not "altogether" the Lord's ! Intel- 
lectually and conscientiously they plight their all to 
Christ ; with all the strength they have, they give 
themselves away, all the while conscious of something 
deep within that will not let them go. How can 
these sincere souls be helped ? for they are to be 
found by the thousand all over the land. Shall we 
say they are accepted and sanctified, and should wait 
for the witness ? and say so on the evidence of this 
consecration and believing ? I hope not, especially 
at such a time as this, when God is so extensively 
convicting the Church of inbred sin (which I under- 
stand to mean the motions of sin in a fallen nature, 
in distinction from voluntary transgression). Let us 
not, by our easy teaching and preaching, heal the 
hurt slightly, forestalling the Holy Ghost in his 
thorough cure. 

There are very many sincere souls honestly seeking 
after the right way, yet failing to enter the promised 
rest, as they say, from a want of faith. I wish to say 
to such, that it is quite probable that your trouble 
lies not so much in a weak or spurious faith, as in the 
conditions of faith, viz., consecration and crucifixion. 
Deep in that depraved nature the heart maintains its 
hold of some carnal pleasure, or is aiming at some 



RELATIONS TO SAVING FAITH. 247 

selfish end. And there the head battles the heart in 
long stragglings and fastings to believe, and then 
plies its mighty resolves on this heart-hold of 
depravity, as if dogmatic intellect could master great 
emotional soul. 

We may wrench away at this hold of wedded self- 
pleasure, till fastings starve the body, and resolves 
die on our own lips, but still it holds. We may say, 
I believe now, I give up all now, and do so with all 
our strength and in sincerity, and the heart may 
respond, I give up all now ; but hark to the low 
whisper to itself, all but this. And here we wait, 
then coax, then scold our faith, and say I will believe. 
This same old trouble ministers find everywhere. 

What can be done to help the thousands over this 
bar ? A brother suggests that we pray once more, 
and believe that the Lord accepts us just as we are, 
for that is faith. 

Wait a little, my brother, if you please. Amputa- 
tions come next. This tenderness over right hands 
and ri^rht eves that cause us to stumble — this fondling 
of idols before God in saying, I don 't mean any hurt 
in it, even if it is wrong, I take no pride in it — is 
enough to baffle prayer forever. Moses and Elijah 
would have failed here. Crucifixion unto death will 
only avail against the carnal mind. If the old man 
goes with us in any sense unto God's altar, it must be 
in blood, fresh from the crucifixion. And here is one 
of the critical points in consecration ; w r e are so 
tempted to mix the man of sin in the general offering, 
17 



248 CONSECRATION I ITS 

hoping, by fostering the new life, to bring on a more 
gradual termination of badness by growing it to death 
by increasing goodness. 

Depravity will grow with anything known, either 
good or bad, and is as long-lived as holiness. Death 
and burial is the mildest cure possible for this child 
of the devil in us ; for fix it up as we will, with 
politeness, education, confirmations, and baptisms, the 
father knows his child in any dress. This is a cruci- 
fixion requiring two parties, and these are the kind 
of death-blows that must alternate between God and 
self. 

This putting one on his knees to pray the Lord 
most poetically to do a severe work on us about 
which we are so tender, and so loth to admit needs 
doing as a specialty, except as all need such help, is 
one of the shrewd deceptions of depravity. For 
illustration, look at that brother, so zealous and 
gifted. He is a beautiful case, especially to a stran- 
ger. He seems right all around, but his heart holds 
to one idol w T ith the power of a cart-rope. He loves 
money. His passions and plans, his aspirations 
affections, dreams and visions are braided into this 
cable-power that's noosed on money. He prays ear- 
nestly, and prays for sanctification, but says he can't 
believe. Oh ! says a friend, do have faith. No, no ! 
he has too much faith now, he suffers for want of 
despair. If you could dissect his mind you would 
find a sly hope, so deep that he sees it not, of smug- 
gling his idol in with himself yet. Now he prays to 



RELATIONS TO SAVING FAITH. 249 

be saved from the love of riches. Every one calls 
that a good prayer. Now, brother, say amen to your 
own prayer, by giving a thousand dollars to-morrow 
to church extension, or some other good cause. While 
3 t ou ask God to strike this evil in you, give it a blow 
yourself, and see which hurts the wrong most. If 
you cannot crucify yourself to the world, then crucify 
the world to yourself. If you can neither will nor 
pray this propensity out of you, then begin outside, 
begin on the world, smash in upon this idol and see 
how it re-acts on the heart, when to your surprise you 
will find both crucifixions are going on together. But 
do not be discouraged, my friend. Do not say, I am 
not worth saving ; for you are. You have but one 
besetmeut. I acknowledge it is a mean one. Some 
of us have a number. Do not, when you come 
within one of being right, go w r ith this blot on you 
forever. 

Take another case, and it shall be from history. 
One of the highest-fashioned ladies of a certain village 
where I attended meeting, was convicted of sin most 
deeply. At length she presented herself at the altar, 
came sweeping up the ailse, in full rig, like a peacock, 
spread for show. Pride itself can afford to go to the 
altar and even kneel down, for the good opportunity 
of showing off. But no such motive prompted this 
lady. She was sincere and in trouble. Night after 
night we labored long for this promising case, but oh, 
how dark ! At length, as if in despair of getting the 
terms let down in behalf of pride ; and disgusted with 



250 CONSECRATION : ITS 

half-hearted knockings at the door of the kingdom, 
she smoothed herself down to New Testament mod- 
esty and shame-facedness, laid off one hundred and 
fifty dollars worth of jewelry, put on a plain hood, 
and bowed at that same altar with an emphasis which 
seemed to say : Brethren, I shall enter the strait gate 
to-night! She consented, at last, to sacrifice the 
world's fictitious ladyship for the title, daughter of 
Zion. 

Where was the trouble in this case ? Was the fault 
in the faith or in the consecration ? We all see and 
say, it was in the consecration. She tried, perhaps 
unconsciously, to barter off the vain pomp and glory 
of the world, with herself, into God's hands, and 
failed ! Faith took the case just at that failure and 
not before. Oh, this little childish pride, how it clings 
to things that glisten ! 

A woman, long in the church, desires to be all the 
Lord's ; is trying, she says, to believe, but hesitates, 
doubts, clings to something, cries, pleads, and finally 
breaks with her conscience and with her God over one 
little shining toy. She is ashamed of it herself, but 
the heart whimpers over the precious thing, says it 's 
too bad to carry about a gold w r atch and not fix it so 
that the people can see that it is yellow r . Then these 
sparkling rings and bracelets, how aristocratic they 
look ! Can't afford to forego so many signs of being 
rich. But who can afford to barter away his Christian 
influence, with good sense and conscience, for the 
gratification of pleasing the eyes of worldly lust? 



RELATIONS TO SAYING FAITH. 251 

My neighbor asks, do you think the Lord pays any 
attention to such little things as these? If he does 
not, the heart evidently does. 

I wish to say it plainly ; a holiness that practically 
contradicts the Bible, on dress, or anything else, is 
doomed to suspicion, even by the world, as being spuri. 
ous. I admit that it appears more polite to attribute 
our failures to a want of faith than to charge the cause 
home to some wrong within. I do not like to say that 
I am in no strait to be saved further than respectabil- 
ity requires, or that I cannot afford to lose cast with 
fashionable members of the church for anything I 
have seen in the holy state yet. It is more agreeable 
to say, I can't believe. What would the minister think 
if I should tell him frankly that I considered the Bible 
too exacting in requiring us to give up all things for 
the sake of Christ, and even worse than that, to count 
them as dung and dross, when set against religion ? 
I am willing to give up a part for Christ, for I want 
to be saved, if I can have the privilege of sorting out 
the exceptions, but this grinding humanity into the 
dust is too severe a religion for this smart a^e. Well 
my honest friend, I praise the Lord that there are mul- 
titudes in these days, and in this smart age, who can 
afford to go down to dust for the sake of rising up 
to God and heaven. 

Consecration, not in parts, but in degrees, must be 
deferred. 



A WORD TO THE READER; 



This little pamphlet is not the invention of the author of its contents. 
This manner of communicating with the people was suggested by a 
number of friends. These were the considerations presented : Many 
persons not able to purchase the book, yet wishing some remembrancer 
of a former pastor, or of one so extensively known by the camp meeting 
hosts of our Israel, would be accommodated, in part at least, by a cheap 
pamphlet. Again, in these times of worldly rush, of confusion and 
noise — notwithstanding the agency of the pulpit in calling attention to 
things spiritual, where the thousands resort to be quickened into life by 
the stirring messages from men of God — the church needs other helps 
also, such as an occasional outlet of stirring, fiery truth in a bundle, 
which can be taken home and unscrolled in the hour of leisure ; a sort 
of closet battery for feeble faith to touch when ready to faint. 

Then, much of the reading is too learned in words — in great, uncom- 
mon words— though but half freighted; too precise, too far round in 
reaching the point ; then it is reached so gradually and smoothly that 
you don't know when you come to it. The people want to hear the 
flint and steel come together at once, and feel fire flashed into them 
the first strike. 

The manner of some writers, as well as speakers, is incisive; like 
plunging, you feel that their sentiments have entered into your mind, 
and you go away stuck full of arrows, tracking blood from church to 
home, as it were. how the world needs men who dare make badness 
bleed ! 

The manner of others is more like a rolling motion ; like an even- 
rimmed wheel, for instance. 0, ho! how nice they go; they roll out 
over me so smooth and soft; then, at times, they come like a prose 

*The following pages are a reprint of a Pamphlet, which explains this 
preface. 



A WORD TO THE READER. 253 

anthem on ears — a dispensation of chloroform on nerves. I go to sleep 
of agreeableness. Have wished a thousand times I had the smooth 
gift; but here it is, the same, old, homely abruptness, as usual. 

One gift, or the other, it matters not which, only when a man speaks; 
to me on the great thrilling themes, I want him to take me as by storm,, 
and link me to his fiery soul, and take me whither he will; and not he- 
tapping with gloved fingers on the outside door, waiting for a polite- 
invitation from the porter of the house to come in. A messenger from 
heaven has the prerogative to break through and open the inner gate of 
my great spiritual self, and stir the latency of my immortal being. 

Then, many writers aim at least forty-five degrees too high for the- 
people, in their style of writing; they hit a few figures which loom 
above the masses in grand loneliness, and no doubt do them good; but 
this pamphlet belongs down here, and is made for common humanity.. 

Then, I am encouraged in this work, from the favor with which my 
book is received, as the reader may infer from the scanty selections oa 
the last page, taken from the papers, all the notices of which have beeu 
highly favorable, except the Christian Advocate, which was what I 
predicted before it came out; but as no one is killed by it, we will 
take courage. 

As the subjects in the book are considered too profound and spiritual 
for youthful readers, I have given the plowshare of thought an upward 
pitch in this, with the view of running more to the surface, hoping by 
here a little, and there a little, to benefit all ; for doing good is all the 
business I have now on earth, or ever expect to have. May the Lord 
use what little remains to the best account for the promotion of human 
goodness. Read, and circulate by selling, if the thing is judged worthy. 

If the matter of this little book should be judged unworthy of being- 
published, the fault belongs with others, as well as myself, for I am. 
urged to this work by some of the best persons in the Church — some 
of the mcst educated and mature minds we have, and, if it is a mis- 
take, my company is good, shall not bear the blame alone. And if 
the Lord favors me, the probability is, that this will not be the last in* 
this line, for the quiver is full of arrows still, which are restless to be- 
let go. This great deep of Truth is somewhat like a living well, the- 
more we draw out, the more comes in. 



254 THE CONFLICT OF FAITH 



THE CONFLICT OF FAITH A MEANS OF ITS 
STRENGTH.* 

Send her away; for she erieth after us. — Matt. 15: 23. 

This contemptuous repulse by the disciples relates 
to a woman who came to Christ with a critical request, 
that is, it was critical, except in the reasoning of faith. 
This woman's daughter was grievously vexed with a 
devil. And notwithstanding she was at a distance, 
besides being a Gentile, this mother found the Lord 
in her behalf, and cried to him with words — with 
loud praying. But he answered her not a word. 

Then the disciples came, saying, u Send her away ; 
for she erieth after us." 

What will the neighbors think of us if we allow 
this woman to be around in this manner ? 

Intimating, at least, that it was not modest, espe- 
cially for a Gentile woman to be obtruding herself on 
the king of Israel with her family troubles, especially 
as she has no rights or privileges in this Jewish king- 
dom. What could be more discouraging to one in 
her condition than to be reproached with immodesty ? 

At length the Saviour spoke, but his words were 
enough to crush hope out of her, but for her faith. 
He says, " I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the 

* This sermon appeared first in the Earnest Christian. 



A MEANS OF ITS STRENGTH. 255 

house of Isreal" — taking sides with the disciples 
against her: as much as to say, " Woman, you are out 
of your place, I belong to the Jews, you are a 
Gentile." 

Then she worshipped him, saying, " Lord help me'"' 
— help me in what? " To withstand this terrible 
rebuff, or help me in some other way." I hope she 
meant this, help me to hold on to my first prayer. If 
you are right, don't allow opposition and unbelief to 
baffle faith out of half its claims. 

Finally, Christ spake again : "It is not meet to take 
the children's bread and cast it to dogs." The Jews 
are the natural children of this spiritual family, and 
have the first right to the blessings of this Gospel dis- 
pensation. Gentiles are outcasts — heathens, and 
called dogs everywhere — you are a Gentile and have 
no rights here. She replies: "Truth, Lord, yet the 
dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master's 
table." 

Now for the points in this master argument. She 
admits all that Christ has said as truth, and treats her- 
self as she is treated, places herself in the relation of 
a dog, and just puts in a dog's claim, and there, forti- 
fied with law and custom, as well as the admission of 
Christ that dogs have rights, she claims what is under 
the table as legally belonging to the dogs, and espe- 
cially when it is rejected as unfit for the children. 

And what does she get but Christ himself ! He is 
represented as the Bread which came down from 
Heaven, as the life, first of the Jews. But when he 



256 THE CONFLICT OF FAITH 

came to his own — the Jews — with his infinite proffers, 
his own received him not, but rejected him, as crumbs, 
not fit for the family. 

But this poor Gentile has faith in him w r ho is rejected 
by the Jewish church ; all she asks is, that which the 
Jews will not have. 

Her argument is more than valid for her daughter. 
She conquers Christ to the service of her faith, not 
only for her daughter, but for any other good she may 
ask, that is, so it appears ; but the hidden result is, 
that Christ through this woman has conquered the 
prejudice of caste, put to shame the arrogance of a 
fallen church, and carried faith to the triumphant 
point. 

Christ all along meant to make an example of faith 
in this poor Gentile woman, as if to show to future 
ages his impartiality and the fullness of salvation. 
Hence, while he repelled her by audible words, he 
inwardly fortified her faith for the final victory. 

Let the saints note here, that faith's triumphs come, 
not through outward signs and circumstances, but by 
the inward operations of the Holy Ghost. 

Hear Christ's reply : 

"O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee 
even as thou wilt !" 

The reply seems derogatory to the Lord of life and 
glory. Master and servant seem to change places ; 
the woman is allowed to become dictator, and Christ 
the servant. Mystery — mystery ! 

We have been taught to believe, that the highest 



A MEANS OF ITS STRENGTH. 257 

state of mind is marked with acquiescence in the Divine 
will, and that practical godliness consists in doing 
that will. Bat what shall we say of this case ? This 
seems to be more than religion. Here the Infinite 
puts himself into the service of a finite — making the 
will of a woman the pattern for Al mightiness to 
work by. 

Faith puts the orders running the other way — this 
is faith's highest prerogative, and just here may be 
found the philosophy of its power, — it is leagued to 
the Throne, with Infinite God committed to its won- 
drous asking. 

But to return to the idea of conflict. 

Some movements and powers in the natural world 
are augmented by restraint, some by conflict. 

Our first defeat at Ball Run resulted in bringing 
out a greater power on rebellion, thereby making 
victory more glorious and defeat of foes more disas- 
trous. 

The steam power which moves the train is wholly 
indebted to restraints for its wonderful achievements. 
Give to steam full liberty and it would lose its name 
— we should call it vapor. So, had we triumphed at 
Bull Run. we should have died ignorant of ourselves 
as a nation, while the world's guess of us would have 
been wide of the mark. As the strain on the string 
of a boy's kite sends it higher up, so of faith, opposi- 
tion and conflict augment its power. Faith, above all 
the Christian graces, seems endowed with the quality 
of inflexibility, or the power of resistance. 



t 



258 THE CONFLICT OF FAITH 

While it would be made to hesitate under one 
compromise, it is equal to a thousand battles, coming 
out better than it went in. Hence we are to fight the 
o;ood fio'ht of faith. 

In" aggressive warfare, faith is the van power of all 
the Christian graces: leading on the united forces, 
with cheers and courage to the faintest hope. 

Hence we are to go, not to the State churches, but 
to the records of martyrdom, for the prodigies of 
faith. 

Faith puts on strength while wrestling with prin- 
cipalities and powers, or walking through fire. By 
the grace of God, the bufferings of Satan are turned 
to good account, and it is the province of faith to 
count it all joy, when we fell into them. Yes, the 
devil has been the occasion of more faith in me than 
all my friends have been ; they rejoice with me and 
encourage me, while the devil makes a necessity for 
faith. 

Faith not only augments in tribulation, but it gets 
its schooling there also ; these sore trials are the edu- 
cational periods of faith. 

We get no fighting ideas, or fighting power from a 
triumph, except that it is the seal and ratification of 
the conflict ; we get joy and rejoicing and loud sing- 
ing, and it is just the time for ecstasy, but the old 
believers understand it to be a dangerous time for faith. 
A triumph is encouragement to faith as an added mon- 
ument to the long line of faith's memorials, running 
back and growing gray in the years of time, as the 



A MEANS OF ITS STRENGTH. 259 

events run by, till you stand at faith's first victory, 
sealed with blood, where the dead man Abel speaks. 
Then the victory is a sort of yea and amen, or an 
indorsement of our power of conquest which we take 
along for the fright of enemies, as our troops did from 
the signal victory at Winchester. The shout of " Win- 
chester ! v after that, half conquered rebels. 

In the kingdom we have a great many Winchesters, 
as I have intimated, for every saint is not only an 
heir to the righteousness which is by faith, but also 
an heir to faith's triumphs, whether these triumphs 
were wrought out in and through ourselves, or in the 
history of the sleeping dead. Yes, Daniel's victory 
over Darius and Lions has fruit in me and you. 

And now, poor disconsolate one, with sins pardoned 
and consecrations full, and yet with bowed head and 
tearful eyes, saying, " O for faith, for faith — my all 
of strength is gone — my heaviness of soul is so great, 
I cannot look up." Well then, look down, but 
believe in God ! then looking down, shall be up 
to thee. 

Kneel down as you are, be honest — be sincere — be 
thorough — face your troubles — face your darkness — 
face your unbelief, then call over the Winchesters. 
Say Red Sea — Fiery Furnace — Lions' Dens — Inner 
Prisons, etc., or sum them all up in one abbreviation. 

Say, " Jehovah-jireh !" or better still, cry Jesus! 
in faith, and you shall conquer. For every fiend on 
earth and in hell knows Jesus, for he has been through 
the dark realms, and he overcame ? trailing conquest 



260 THE CONFLICT OF FAITH 

blood, as it were, from foe to foe, from kingdom to 
kingdom, turning his triumphs ever to our account. 
Now say, Jesus ! but say Jesus by the Holy Ghost — by 
faith, for every foe that lurks along the way of life, 
knows when Jesus is spoken in the mother tongue of 
faith ! 

Faith dares the world against Jesus, solitary and 
alone ! Now let us sing, 

te Jesus the name high over all, 
In hell, or earth, or sky, 
Angels and men before it fall, 
And devils fear and fly." 

Glory be to Jesus Christ ! 

It is interesting at our altars, at times,' to witness 
the conflict of faith against formalism. Perhaps the 
penitent sigh is heard, and the murmur of prayer 
comes from many a broken heart, though with an 
awkward tongue ; every believing soul throbs with 
sympathy for the wretched ones, who groan in their 
distress to be set free ; it is a time of great excite- 
ment, such a scene as knows no law, and such as no 
wise minister would control if he could. But here 
comes a very circumspect and respectable brother, and 
he is about to make a prayer, how precise — how 
grammatical ! 

See on what a broad circle he begins, but he feels 
that he is in another dispensation from the meeting. 
But O, when faith comes in, how he narrows down ; 
wrenching the wheels out of the ruts of formalism, he 
makes a new track to the Throne, settling down on the 



A MEANS OF ITS STRENGTH. 261 

soul and centre of all prayer, he all but screams, 
4k Je*us, help l n Every sinner knows that God is in 
that man, or he would not jeopardize his reputation 
for intellectuality, by such a strange prayer. 

But who can tell the victory of faith, in that one 
man ; perhaps he is a minister. Studied precision 
and sleepy formality have been his curse for years. 
But faith comes in, upsetting the old formal gearing, 
and his soul is free — simplified down to a happy king- 
dom child. 

O ye disconsolate ones, who feel there is nothing of 
you, endure the process of impoverishment, like the 
woman in the text ; hold steady to the point, it is here 
in the conflict that you take on the cubits to your 
spiritual stature. 

My greatest blessings, this side my conversion, have 
come through my greatest sorrows. These sore trials 
have been the avenues through w T hich the Lord has 
freighted his great substantial, and sometimes the arri- 
vals came through as by torch-light, it was so dark ; 
then the wheels all but creaked under the loads ; yes, 
listen for the creaking when the torch-lights are seen ; 
or without a figure, expect not only great deliverances, 
but great revelations after great fights of afflictions. 
I said, faith is endowed with the power of resistance. 
Eead up its bloody history in the past, and then say 
if the assertion is not true. The kingdom of dark- 
ness has exhausted invention and cruelty in the perse- 
cution of saints, cutting out tongues — plucking out 

c o Mr < & 

eyes — beheading — disjointing bones — frying — roast- 



262 THE CONFLICT OF FAITH 

ing — boiling — cutting— slashing, in every form, just 
as though cruelty could anatomize Divinity out of 
man, or cut the tie that binds a saint to the arm of 
power, or break the league of faith to the Eternal 
Throne ! No, No I It cannot be. The years of God 
in saints shall reach the promised count, though it 
were all the way through martyrdom. 

The fire that burns a believer to-day out of half his 
mortal existence, shall hasten the birth of other sons 
to God, keeping the number more than good. The 
effort to strangle eternal life out of this world is more 
than a failure. God can bring his triumphs through 
stake fires as well as Calvary's crucifixion. 

That the burning alive has failed a thousand times 
over to abate eternal life in man, or divorce the union 
of saint and God, belong with faith's memorials. That 
faith is more than fire, turns the defeat on murderers, 
adding a new victory to the ancient Galileean. 

No, it is settled in hell, even, that Christ cannot be 
burned out of his redeemed church. No, no, it cannot 
be; faith can w 7 alk through fire every step of the way 
to millennium, multiplying believers through all the 
lurid route. 

Faith is more than nature. It has been brought in 
conflict with nearly every law in the literal world, 
and suspended them, with men and devils standing 
aghast ; it has driven a breach through the impossi- 
bilities, dashing on to final victory ! 

O ye saints of the Lord, believe ! for the Infinite is 



THE DOUBT OF A LADY. 263 

committed to faith, more than to any other state or con- 
dition known. The Throne is under vow to faith ! 

Now, Mr* Editor, as you have but little room for 
long pieces, I will stop before I close, and this fear of 
being too lengthy for your book, perhaps has made 
my words too few for this mysterious subject, My 
manner of treating it reminds me of the figure of a 
plow ruuning rapidly through a bed of pearls, leaving 
much digging to be done. I have merely marked the 
surface of a rich vein ; now ye searchers after hid 
treasures, follow the lead, but dig deep. 

Watevford, N. T. 



THE DOUBT OF A LADY. 

Brother Pomeroy, do you think it is hurtful for me 
to read the Ledger and such kind of papers ? 

My friend, that depends much on your moral condi- 
tion. They say crows can eat carrion and thrive on it, 
while it would kill some birds. Some ministers are 
not hurt by going to horse racing, theatres, various 
shows, and becoming freemasons, etc., while others 
say their conscience, the word and Spirit of God, re- 
quire them to abandon all such associations. It r s the 
pure spirits who get hurt with badness. And if I am 
to judge of your moral state by the folly hanging on 
to your apparel, I doubt if a dozen Ledgers would 
hurt you. It is probable that you are unhurtable by 

such things. 

18 



264 hypocrisy don't pay — god's echo. 

HYPOCRISY DON'T PAY. 

This is not the age for hypocrites ; hypocrisy is at 
discount, these times. A coin too much alloyed 
makes counterfeiting profitless. So the cheap com- 
modity in some churches, called religion, has robbed 
hypocrisy of its motive. Counterfeiting pays best 
when the genuine is costly and at a premium. Let 
the saints so demonstrate the Divine in them as to 
make hypocrisy a temptation to iniquity. When the 
way to heaven is made wide, and mere pretense is 
called religion, pretenders are numerous. 



GOD'S ECHO. 

Extract of letter to Rev. E. S. P. 

While the ultimate rest of the Christian's faith must 
of necessity be on the authority of truth as its founda- 
tion, the experience of truth is the soul's best evidence 
that truth is ; as a witness in the mind is more satis- 
factory than all historic evidence. Experience is the 
demonstration of truth and truth's authority — the 
yea and amen of the Holy Ghost in man, by Christ 
Jesus — the audible echo of God's silent voice in his 
written word. 



WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 265 

WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

But he answered her not a word. — Matt. 15: 23. 

My text is a part of the history of the trials and 
triumphs of the woman who came to Christ in behalf 
of her daughter, who was sorely vexed with a devil, 
the particulars of which are given in a previous ser- 
mon. 

Let no one suppose that this apparent contempt of 
Christ to this anxious mother is an accident, or from 
indifference to her troubles. It has a meaning, and 
to us no doubt a lesson, if we may but read it aright. 

This first reception of the woman by Christ, and 
his final exclamation of approval of her, is in myste- 
rious contrast. At first he treats her with the utmost 
indifference, as being beneath even a denial of her 
request. In conclusion, he exclaims, "O, woman, 
great is thy faith ; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." 

In an attempt to reconcile this apparent contradic- 
tion in the manner of Christ toward this afflicted 
woman, we hope to develop some of the secrets of 
faith. It is not enough that we are conscious of receiv- 
ing good ; we are also to be made sensible of the 
want of a promised blessing. And in the present 
and final summing up of God's interposition for us, 
the ruin side of the case is to be taken into the reck- 
oning, as well as positive salvation. It is from per- 
ishing as well as to eternal life. 

Saving faith is the great alternative or last resort 
against soul failure and ruin. It is the result of two 



266 WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

causes, viz.: self-despair on one hand, and proffered 
help from God on the other. Faith stands in between 
despair and promise, taking the soul over to a reali- 
zation of its full hope in Christ. The chief signifi- 
cance and preciousness of promise comes from self- 
wretchedness ; hence, just in proportion as you miti- 
gate or obscure this soul ailment, you depreciate the 
promise and rob Christ of glory. 

This sense of self-wretchedness is the Spirit's first 
great triumph in man. It is here also that the well- 
spring of gratitude, present and eternal, takes its 
rise. Hear it, ye dispensers of rose-water and balm; 
quackery and superficial dealing here will show itself 
in a stinted gratitude and languid song forever. This 
is premature birth ! The most favored opportunity 
in all time for impressing the soul with sin's sinful- 
ness has miscarried, and the Holy Ghost been fore- 
stalled in part in his first great work, by the igno- 
rance of doctors, or the fear of offending, or, shall I 
say it ? a secret haste to count converts. 

O, my brother minister, for the sake of the happi- 
ness of that penitent, do let him struggle through ; 
let him die the death; let him feel the sharpness of 
the two-edged sword. For the key-note in the song 
of our deliverance derives its chief emphasis, and 
will forever, from the experience of this first death. 
Thus it shall ever be, "unto him who hath loved us, 
and washed us from our sins /" 

Hence, to encourage trust in God, except on the 
ground of self-helplessness, or preach faith in Christ 



WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT, 267 

for pardon, except on the ground of sinfulness re- 
pented of, is to promote a formal, spurious faith. 
While, on the other hand, to renounce self-goodness 
and self-reliance, without reference to help in God, is 
to produce despair. Faith requires both of these 
motives. And just here I place the cause of the spu- 
rious conversions so much complained of. The motive 
of encouragement is relied upon, to the neglect of the 
motive of necessity ; hence, the preaching faith, faith ; 
when it should first be, repent, repent ! for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand. 

In some meetings I have attended, where it required 
great effort to persuade even two or three to come to 
the altar, and they appearing rather comfortable, the 
whole administration was of the most encouraging 
nature ; preaching, talking, praying, singing, all ad- 
justed to the idea of encouragement. I may be wrong. 
but very much doubt if encouragement has any appli- 
cation to such a congregation. The fact is, they are 
presuming on God's patience, and going to ruin for 
the want of discouragement. The idea of administer- 
ing to a half-awakened or careless congregation such 
remedies as these : "We're going home, we're going 
home, to die no more ; '' or, " O, come, ye angel bands, 
with your snowy wings, and bear me away to glory ! " 

Now, dear brethren, don't be hurt ; for I am only 
speaking against the misapplication of truth and song. 
I don't blame saints, and especially young converts, 
for loving these thrilling songs ; they belong to you ; 
they have stirred my sleepy soul a thousand times, 



268 WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

doing me good. Only don't invite snowy wings into 
the horrible pit of miry clay ; something more than 
white flutter is required to grapple with that dark con- 
dition. Then, by the way, if the angels please, when 
they come, don't take me, if it's off from the battle 
field, though they might be bound for glory ; not quite 
ready to exchange battle field even for glory. 

Half-awakened sinners often come to the altar, hon- 
estly hoping it may do them good ; and it might, if 
their purposes were right and their cases properly 
understood. But our error is in supposing, because 
they are there, they are in a condition to accept of 
Christ now. Hence the exhortation, u Receive Christ 
just as you are : believe he is now forgiving you," etc. 

You are premature, my brother, he can do such 
thing. It is true, by coming to the altar, his relations 
to you and the meeting seem changed, but if you are 
thorough, it will be found that his relation to truth — 
to himself and God, is just as it has been, and cannot 
be treated as a penitent. 

His best remedy is waiting and crying. 

What would you think of a surgeon who should 
embalm one who is dying for the want of the amputa- 
tion of a mortified limb ? 

Away with this balm, and bring out your surgical 
instruments. Urge a half-awakened sinner to accept 
Christ now : delusion ! He would not thank you for 
a dozen Saviours, he's not lost yet, he's alive without 
the law. And as evidence that I am right, see if you 
can get him to pray ; no, sir, he is in no such strait. 



WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 269 

There is no argument, eloquence, Bible, song, or pa- 
tience enough in that house to bring him to prayer. 

And yet he is doing the best he can with himself. 
The Holy Ghost will take care of him, if he can keep 
away the rose water cure. His next hope is in wait- 
ing — coming and waiting. 

It is not enough to know there is a great Saviour ; 
he must be made to feel, I am a great sinner, and but 
for this fact, Jesus would be without meaning or 
mission. 

The hope is, that this poor soul will sometime and 
some how, blunder on to the great dark fact of himself, 
and when he does fully come to himself, he will find 
something he did not know of. 

I linger here not from choice, but from its impor- 
tance, as I consider this the dangerous point in our 
salvation, and growing more so. The tendency is 
stronger to get by an old fashioned repentance, which 
requires honest work in dress and with money — re- 
quiring confession and restitution^ bringing the proud 
heart down to sackcloth. 

But the old rugged process is the same in every 
age; it is kill first, then make alive — first paor, then, 
rich. Its the old Sinai route to Calvary still, and no 
one feels much interest in Christ or Calvary, who has 
not been made to feel the curse of holy law, and trem- 
ble in Sinai's awful thunder. 

Every soul saved is to be taken as from the doorsteps 
of the kingdom, a beggar, hopeless, helpless, a spirit- 
ual foundling. 



270 WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

And just here lies the doubt and danger in man's 
salvation ; will he break clown and take the place of 
a bankrupt, as he is, for the sake of a free gift salva- 
tion, or will he still urge his own goodness and re- 
spectability as an apology for rejecting the conditions 
of a poor man's Saviour ? 

These illustrations are designed to set forth the 
hidden and more critical work of faith. 

The spiritual blessings imparted to us through faith 
are more obvious, but the preparation of the heart to 
receive these new impartations is not so observable. 
All the neighbors could clearly see the answer of the 
woman's prayer in the cure of her daughter, and no 
doubt a change was observable in the mother's look 
and talk, and song, but that dubious process carried 
on within, from where Christ answered her not a 
word^ to where he exclaimed, "Great is thy faith," is 
liable to be lost out of the reckoning. It appears 
that there are at least two methods of graduating faith 
up to the triumph point ; one is opposition, tribula- 
tion and conflict, by which its power is augmented by 
practical trial ; the other is postponement of the 
final answer for inward scrutiny and preparation, by 
which the soul is purified of false trusts. 

Both these methods met in the case of the woman 
m the text. And it is here in this lost time of wait- 
ing upon the Lord, when he answers us not a word, 
that the heart-searchings are carrid on, and the soul 
goes from high to low, and the mysterious transitions 
take place. 



WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 27l 

It is in deferring the final answer, that God is en- 
abled to bring ill his last condition ; we accept the 
full terms, rather than fail. Many a minister has 
humbled himself to sackcloth and ashes, rather than 
have his faith fail of a revival, not but that he was 
sincere all along, but the delay brought a pressure on 
him, and put him to searching for the cause of this 
lack of fruit. In like manner, many a believer has 
accepted duties and sacrifices to-daj-, which no per- 
suasion or reasoning could bring them to yesterday, 
just because the Lord answered not a word. The 
waiting of faith on the Lord, with no answer, ex- 
hausts our false hopes and reliances, breaking down 
our bruised reeds, and hurrying us on to bank- 
ruptcy. 

This is the work of faith in us, to produce a spirit- 
ual vacuum, by self-exhauston, bringing on helpless- 
ness, which makes a necessity for God. A certain 
minister illustrated this process, by the effort of a fly 
to escape from a large room ; he drove with great 
force against this window, then the other, then back, 
and on from side to side he went, till exhausted, 
bruised and mangled, he fell as dead on the win- 
dow sill, where through a little crevice he crawled 
out. 

With some of us, it requires a long postponement 
of the final object; some hard kicking against the pricks 
— bruising — killing — disgust and shame, to bring us 
crawling, we so like to make progression with a good 
buzz, moving on in a flight. But O, this crying and 



272 WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

waiting, is a sovereign remedy for soaring propen- 
sities. 

It required much mortification and affliction to 
bring Naaman, the leper, where God could save him; 
he had some faith in that holy man, Elisha, for a cure 
of leprosy, so he dashed up to the prophet's door in 
his chariot, and sent in word that he was ready to be 
cured, expecting that this great prophet in Israel 
would come out and wave his hand over him, and call 
on the name of his God, and cure him in his strut, 
especially as he had the cash to pay. Rather too 
much buzz in that Naaman, and you will find that 
God, through Elisha, knows how to take it out of 
you. 

The prophet does not so much as come out to meet 
the great man, but sent a servant with the prescrip- 
tion ; this is it: " Go wash in Jordan seven times.' 7 
And the great man wheeled in a rage for home, say- 
ing, "I won't do it; I'll wash in the rivers of my 
own country, which are better, but I'll not be behold- 
en to the waters of this land of fanatics for my cure, 
when I have six thousand pieces of gold to pay the 
bills." Well, my friends, as you well know, it re- 
quired seven washings in that very Jordan to break 
down the arrogance and pride of that Naaman. Wash- 
ing seven times ! A good opportunity for the neigh- 
bors to gather round and witness the poor fellow as 
he cried off the counts. And probably nothing less 
than seven times would suffice to bring that man 



WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 273 

where God could bless his soul, and cure him of the 
inward leprosy, the worst of the two. 

It is said, ; ' By faith the walls of Jericho fell down/ 7 
But it required seven days of marching round Jericho 
to exhaust the dignity and self-reliance of the marchers, 
and bring them to the all-faith point. Look at their 
condition ; seven days 7 profession of faith in the true 
God, before those idolatrous nations, they are in 
a strait, there is no receding, and the thing can- 
not be hid. "We are doomed to open daylight ruin 
and everlasting confusion, or infinite God must inter- 
fere. We see our marching has nothing to do with 
these walls, and never will. God alone can triumph 
here, through our faith. 77 

At length, this seven day laughing-stock for hea- 
thens, marching in the armor of rams 7 horns, march- 
ing and waiting seven days, touched at last the triumph- 
point of faith, which had its first effect in themselves, 
for they waxed so confident and daring, that they 
actually shouted the victory before it took place ; to 
them faith was the evidence of things not seen. 

Infinite power brought down the walls, but the 
enemies, no doubt, were conquered in spirit by the 
strangeness of the shout. So it is to this day; faith has 
an accent terribly ominous to the kingdom of anti- 
Christ, wielding a power such as book logic and 
rhetoric never knew. 

My friends, do you pray, when the Lord answers 
you not a word ? and are you ready to say the Lord 
delayeth his coming so long, I must faint and give 



274 WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

over ? No, no, my friend, a living faith can survive a 
deferred answer and gain by waiting. If the final 
answer is delayed, know by this that the prayer is 
defective, or there is a preparatory work within 
which crying and waiting will advance more than 
manifested glory. 

And just here, I apprehend, is the more critical 
work of faith, in preparing the soul for the Divine 
revelations. And I feel safe in saying, that in many 
instances this waiting faith is more critical to main- 
tain, and more exhaustive of self-goodness and self- 
trust, than even the conflict of faith, though here is a 
kind of conflict, while deprived of the dignity of 
opposition. This is called waiting upon the Lord, as 
if we were coming and going; — coming and waiting 
for the Lord to get ready to answer the request, 
when the humiliating fact is, we are waiting upon 
ourselves, or waiting for ourselves to reach a suitable 
preparation to receive the blessings which the gra- 
cious God stands holding out to us. 

I observe many good people use this petition in 
prayer, viz.: " Bless me as Thou see'st I have need.' 7 
This is very proper when we allude to the divine 
providences, but when applied to salvation by faith, 
it 7 s too cheap a prayer, too wholesale or general. The 
Lord cannot bless on that principle ; he cannot save 
on the rule of himself — of his knowledge of our 
need ; if he could, we should see such a blessed 
world down here, as tongue could not express or 
angel mind conceive, and that too, before sundown ; 



WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 275 

it would be a world born to God in a day, instead of 
a nation. But the trouble would be, if we did not 
renounce our spiritual birth the next day, our hosan- 
nahs would be faint and eternally languishing, from 
the fact that we never could know, except from theo- 
retical teaching, what we had been saved from ; then 
it would never do to admit such converts into the 
old-fashioned Heaven, whose inhabitants came through 
an experience of sin and guilt and shame — on whom 
the pains of hell have had a hold. No. such converts 
could never away with that great grand ascription of 
salvation through the blood of the Lamb ! That voice 
as of many waters — that old Niagara anthem let loose 
would scare the awkward, illegitimate children well 
nigh out of Paradise. 

Alas, alas ! this is more than a supposition : we 
have such hopers of Heaven all about. 

Xo, my friends, the lets and hindrances are not in 
Heaven ; there are no bars in the Divine indisposi- 
tion, for faith and prayer to bring the Infinite over, 
before we can be blessed. 

The impediments are all down here, in 3 r our soul 
and my soul, and it's the great work, and it ? s the intri- 
cate work of faith, or the spirit through faith, to 
break down these barriers and make a welcome way 
for God into man. And this is the rallying point, 
not only for faith, but also of providence and grace — 
of truth and Holy Ghost effort, to produce a felt 
necessity in the soul for the Infinite, extorting the 
exclamation of distress : " Oh, wretched man that I 



276 WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

am, who shall deliver rne from the body of this 
death !" 

From such a wreck of false hopes and dark neces- 
sity, faith would take a soul to Jesus Christ as by 
moonlight. Our trouble is not so much in a defective 
faith, as in a prevented faith. 

It is not only true that there are no impediments 
in the disposition or ability of the gracious God to 
our salvation, but it is equally true that there are no 
limits in God to the degree of our salvation. That 
is, he does not bless and save the children of men by 
a rule in himself. He does not give the Spirit by 
measure unto us ; he keeps no weights or measures in 
his kingdom ; every soul that comes is filled, let him 
be more or less ; his capacity for spirituality is the 
measure of his good. 

At times, the gracious Being shakes down the full- 
ness, and then presses it together, and then to show 
his unboundedness, he runs us over. But O, the 
power of running-over Heaven in mortals ! Then 
how the famished ones wonder what's the matter. 

Now I come to my point, which is this : Faith is 
not only the leading power in us, preparing the mind 
for the Spirit's abode, but faith is God's entity in 
man, — the measure of the soul's capacity for the 
indwelling divine. Give me the degree of your faith, 
and I have your superhuman capacity. The means 
and measures employed by the Spirit in this prepara- 
tion, are various. 

Even in the literal world, to so perfectly empty a 



WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 277 

given space as to produce a vacuum is a very difficult 
work, while the filling up of that vacuum is attended 
with no effort ; the atmosphere on all sides rushes 
for the emptiness. 

So in the spiritual world, to empty a soul of all 
that ? s opposed to holiness, taking away his idols and 
sinful pleasures, sitting him down in loneliness and 
bereavement, with the sigh begotten deep within for 
the holy and the high, is the great work, and the 
critical work both with God and man ; while the 
filling of that hungering, thirsting emptiness is more 
like the rushing atmosphere into voidness. That was 
a great spiritual vacuum filled on the day of Pente- 
cost. 

Some years since, I was brought to a happiness 
almost new, or rather happiness came to me in a new 
way : formerly, heaviness through manifold tempta- 
tions was only heaviness, and the chastisements and 
afflictions were only afflictive. 

But in later years, I have been made to rejoice in 
prospective good, foretokened in these sore trials, 
and even at times been happy in misery when the 
Spirit made me miserable, or even permitted it. As 
that was a sign of God's hope for me, and that some 
higher and nobler purpose was yet to be wrought 
out in and through me. 

And if I could but survive the crucible, he would 
prepare me not only for more glorious revelations of 
the unseen and Heavenly, but through these terrible 
prostrations and humiliations I should be so prepared 



278 WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

that the abundant revelations should not exalt me 
above measure ; that while honored with the reflec- 
tion of Christ's glory, I might not be tempted to call 
it my own, or attribute the chief grace of God in me 
to hereditary or acquired gifts. 

Yes, brethren, the Bible is true; it is possible, as 
thousands can testify who are yet in the deep waters 
of afflictions, it is possible to rejoice even in tribula- 
tions. " Thanks be unto God who giveth us the vic- 
tory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

These experiences, evidently scriptural, are very 
forcibly illustrated in the case of an individual who 
was to pass through a very doubtful and distressing 
surgical operation of amputation ; success was con- 
sidered at best only possible. 

It was previously understood by patient and sur- 
geons that, if in the process of the terrible operation, 
they should find it impossible to succeed, they were 
to cease their efforts at once, and that would be the 
sign to the patient of hopelessness. When amid the 
terrible distress, and yet of increasing hope in the 
patient, hope coming mostly through the continued 
cutting and sawing. a U a t on ce the instruments were 
stopped. 

Some unforeseen contingency requiring a suspen- 
sion. When, as the patient relates, instead of abating 
his distress, it was only a change of location from flesh 
and bone to inner soul, bringing in an agony more 
terrible than the cutting of flesh. The thought, I am 
given up — there is no hope — I must die to-day, and 



WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 279 

go to Gocl just as I am, with body half sawed in two 
and soul worse off, but go, I must ; these were 
thoughts going through his mind, armed with the 
more terrible teeth. But, as the cutting was soon 
commenced again, the transition was, as from death to 
life ; sawing was a luxury compared to soul agony. 
So it has been with thousands of us while passing 
through the dark days of trial ; we could bear the 
knife when wielded by God's own hand, feeling confi- 
dent that he saw the necessity for chastisement. These 
spiritual surgical operations, though not joyful, but 
severe, are, nevertheless, safe, and especially encour- 
aging, as they indicate the hope of the operator. 

I look out upon that dejected, sorrowful, conscien- 
tious class of persons, blessed souls, how can I help 
you! Mostly distressed, because you have no par- 
ticular experience ; for weeks, perhaps it has seemed 
that Christ has answered not a word. God's saws 
have all stopped. He does not even deign to afflict 
us — there is nothing going on within, and the heavens 
are brass above. 

We should take some hope, if we could even 
once more feel old Sinai's thunder, to say nothing of 
Calvary, but no sight or sound from either mount 
for us. 

The once rent and parted vail has again closed 

down dark on the holy of holies, shutting out our 

prayers. We washed seven times in Jordan, and yet 

no miracle seen. And more than seven days we have 

19 



280 WAITING FAITH TRIUMPHANT. 

plodded around Jericho with the walls standing yet, 
and heathens left to mock our hope in God. 

Well, my friends, if the dark story is all told, let 
me say this : Yon may not be called to die daily, but 
evidently this once you must die ; probably there is 
that in you that answering not a word will best con- 
quer. I am not here alluding to dead and laid out souls; 
it requires a living soul and living faith to wait, and 
yet live in waiting. O, ye doubting ones, take courage, 
you have more faith than you are aware of; it ? s no 
dead faith that waits, you have been praying and 
waiting. God loves you, and he means to exalt you 
to his image and to his full fellowship. Now let the 
Spirit have his way in you, for the time draws near 
when you shall see his glory. 

O, the power of praying and waiting ! How it 
exhausts human dignitj^ and courts affinity with dast ; 
praying and waiting — coming and going — praying and 
waiting, with an importunity that wears out the long 
hours, and yet holding on to God with a desperation 
at times that ? s awfully sublime. I wish to say to 
believers, that's a faith that commands heaven and 
has a right to omnipotence in its service; to this faith 
God has committed his words and his worlds. He 
says he will avenge his own elect. Night and day 
pleadings are to have an end with recompense. 



CHARIOTS NOT ALWAYS NEEDED. 281 

CHARIOTS NOT ALWAYS NEEDED. 

On that memorable morning of September 19th, 
1867, at the close of Albany District Camp Meeting, 
to many the greatest ever known, as the long line of 
saints were threading through the parting ceremony ; 
standing next to the presiding elder, he remarked, 
this would be a good place to go to heaven from; but 
looking up through the waving branches, as they 
seemed to clap their hands over us, said, I don't see 
the chariots of fire. Reply : Heaven is too near now 
for chariots, they are made for distances, but never 
drive so near the threshold as this. (It's the province 
of faith at times to go the other side of chariot tracks.) 

After wiping his eyes and offering praise, the elder 
continued: I suppose we shall need go the subterra- 
nean way through death and corruption, as Charles 
Sherman used to say. Reply : I wish to go the route 
followed by redemption ; doubt if there is any great 
advantage in going cross-lots to immortality, like 
Enoch. 

In that case, while those who came by the way of 
death and corruption were taking their high exalta- 
tions through recollected graves and resurrection, I 
must stand mute ; while all around me and above me 
mostly, perhaps, were crying, sown in dishonor but 
raised in glory! — sown in corruption, but raised in 
incorruption ! I must stand a spectator. No ! No ! 
let me have a part in the full chorus — go the full tri- 
umphant round, though it were through death. 



282 CHARIOTS NOT ALWAYS NEEDED. 

Then, by the way, it is interesting to see this same 
presiding elder go through one of God's tumults, 
without getting alarmed, for the honor of his throne, 
as though he were special custodian of the Infinite's 
reputation. When the Holy Ghost comes like a rush- 
ing, mighty wind, filling all the place, it fills him 
also, and then he is not so nervous about smoke, as to 
put out all the fire, freezing his whole bocfy, just to 
save his eyes. Not that I would teach that we are 
infallible when under religious excitement — no, far 
from it ; we need discretion then, and human discre 
tion above all other times. I don't mean worldly 
discretion or prudence, for if the world by wisdom 
never yet come to know God, how should it know 
how he ought to act ? Perhaps there are few who 
suffer more from improprieties in religion than myself, 
having been brought up in the land of steady habits, 
in a very precise church and family, where the preach- 
ing and praying was everlastingly about conducting 
religion decently and in order, when there was not 
religious life enough in the whole town to produce 
disorder, let it do its best. 

So this idea of decency in worship, is bred in my 
very bones, and I suffer from what is known by smoke ; 
I mean a flashy, trashy excitement, that can't wait for 
Old Hundred, and soon expires. But there is a fire 
that's free from this smut, it's beautiful and bright, 
but then it's painted fire. Now, take your choice, 
beautiful, bright, no smoke, eyes safe and only froze 
to death, but froze with eyes open, as if to say, we 



CHAKIOTS NOT ALWAYS NEEDED. 283 

don't have smoke in this church. Then, on the other 
hand, we have the real, natural, kingdom-fire, with 
life under a full pulse, and hosannahs that thrill the 
dead, but, alas ! there is more or less smoke, and it may 
always be so ; there are some everywhere, who, if 
perfect freedom is given, and this is essential to gen- 
uine fire, free action, they will run into excesses and 
follies. O, that we could have more of the solids in 
some of the dear souls. I like a fire made of oak 
logs four feet thick; it don't roar much, it's true, per- 
haps not enough to be pleasant, but O, how it thaws, 
and how it lasts ; equinoctials are its pastimes, then 
its awful heat burns its own smoke. 

But, lest the solid minds should take too much 
glory, I will remind them that they need very much 
this material that is apt to make smoke, for kindlings, 
so don't boast too soon, as you may go out sometimes 
and need a few of these faggots on your lonesome 
altars. But, if I cannot have it as I would, rather 
than freeze to-death, come with your flaming fire and 
crackling thorns, smoke and all. With all my natural 
and educated order and anxiety for appearances, when 
the rushing mighty wind dispensation sets in, and the 
breath of the Lord is heard in the mulberry trees, 
let the nice notions of mortals make way for the com- 
ing of the Holy Ghost. 

The Infinite one is master of his own tumults. 



284 THE LOVE FEAST. 



THE LOVE FEAST.* 

Testimony of the Rev. B. Pomeroy, Author of "Shocks from the Battery^" 
in the Tuesday Meeting at Dr. Palmer's, New York, Jan. 15 5 1868. 

Bro. Belclen had alluded to the seeming contraclic- 
tion in supposing one perfect as a Christian, who is 
and must be so imperfect as a man. 

Bro. Boole had been speaking of the importance of 
presenting a good, more full and perfect, as an in- 
ducement to leaving worldly pleasures ; that conse- 
cration is not enough — that we must receive, as well 
as give. " The poor man will give up his crust for 
something better, of course; but if he fails in finding 
it, he will go back to his brown bread. The heart 
must have something, if it is no more than a crust." 

Bro. Pomeroy arose, much excited. Said he had 
never attended the Tuesday Meeting before, and 
seeing so many of the good and strong ones, he felt 
bashful. Said he, "I am in the condition of the steam- 
engine, which should have been on its track half an 
hour ago. I am trembling under the pressure. This 
*s not just such a meeting as I expected. Instead of 
a few lengthy expositions of this great doctrine of 
Holiness, I came prepared to hear forty or fifty speak 
forth the marvels of God in them; and now, I can 
hardly feel free to occupy time, where there are so 
many to speak." [Voices, "Go on; go on, brother."] 
Turning to Bro. Belden, he continued : " The per- 
fect and the imperfect, alluded to by this brother, I 

♦Reported for the Earnest Christian. 



THE LOYE FEAST. 285 

have in me. I never expect to live a day, without 
some fault or error; don't know as I ever have, and 
probably never shall pass a day without some mis- 
take; but I never expect to sin again in my life. I 
cannot sin — it would hurt me terribly to sin. There 
is nothing in me that would be gratified by sin; the 
sinning propensity is crucified out of me. Glory 
to God ! I am saved through the blood of the 
Lamb." 

Touching Bro. Boole on the shoulder, he said r 
"Now, brother, about your brown bread repast. Our 
only cure of longings for Egypt is in entering Canaan; 
the disrelish of leeks and onions, is in the taste of 
milk and honey. Thank the Lord, I am through 
with leeks and onions at last! Let worldly-minded 
professors make much of their childish pleasures and 
short-lived glories, but talk not of garlics to me; for 
God has brought me into the promised land, to the 
banquet of angels. 

44 Hallelujah ! I am saved from worldly longings; 
have been allured by tinsel and show; fooled by self 
and humbugged by otheTs — -but I can't be humbugged 
on religion again 1 I feel rich im the loss of all things;: 
have out-grown little toys and great toys; parted with 
this pleasure and the other pleasure — O! yes,, have- 
out-grown creation! My principal life is imparted 
from beyond; feel soft and sublime, as a rainbow 
looks — touching the shores, it is true, but bow up be- 
yond tne stars! 

14 1 have parted with the last carnal pleasure; have 



286 THE LOVE FEAST. 

turned away from the last hope but of God; can be 
tracked all the way back to Egypt, by the strewed 
idols — and the first idol you find on the back track, 
will be self. 

" The vain pomp and glory of the world has receded 
before a greater glory. Gorgeous mansions, human 
pride and display are stooping to the dust ; human 
greatness is not so great — gold is not so yellow — as I 
once thought. All are empty of soul-good. 

"Then I turned to great, grand Niagara, so much 
talked of. But I was ashamed of the thing, for I had 
a greater Niagara in my mind — one with a bigger roar. 
It 's a calamity to Niagara that I ever saw it ; but for 
the sight, it would have stood with me ten-fold itself. 
But God's Kingdom-Niagaras are a match for me. 
The revelations of the Great Supreme, to a human 
soul, exceed my ideal in every direction. When the 
great God smiles into my soul, it fills me with a 
grandeur and glory beyond what I am able to speak 
or think. 

"I once feared the holy ones, they are so eagle- 
eyed — feared to have them survey me, for I knew 
there were defects in me. But now — glory to Jesus 
Christ ! I can stand with open gates, and say to sin- 
ners, saints, apostles, martyrs and angels, hold your 
spy glasses on me ; and if it were reverent, would say, 
Omniscient Eyes, go through me ; scan me close, for 
if there is an evil way in me, it would afford me more 
happiness to know it, than to go up the highest Pis- 
gah known — for I am bound to be right, and condi- 



RUNNING OFF THE TRACK. 287 

tions are out of the question. I am not free to take 
your time, but let me say, to the glory of God, I am 
saved through the blood of the Lamb !" 

— The above testimony was gathered by three per- 
sons present at the meeting, and represents very ac- 
curately the words uttered ; but nobody can repeat 
the power and unction in which it was spoken. Its 
effect on the meeting was electric ; and as a good sis- 
ter remarked, the "children were getting fed." 

Joseph Mackey. 



RUNNING OFF THE TRACK. 

One of the presiding elders, at the last session of 
our (Troy) Conference, brought forward a minister's 
application for re-admission, with this fault in the 
man: that he was liable to run off the track. Not that 
he fell into sin ; his moral character was without 
blemish ; yet it seemed difficult to keep him on the 
track. As the elder did not inform us what track he 
ran off from, w r e are left to guess it might be the 
ecclesiastical track. Now the elder was right in this. 
I introduce it only as a text, or an apology for saying 
something partty on this line. 

Some things and some men can afford to runoff the 
track once a year, provided no one is killed, literally 
or spiritually; for they are able to get themselves on 
again, repair damages, and then keep ahead of the 
world. Contrast: A minister being asked how his 
church prospered, replied, We are all harmonious 



288 RUNNING OFF THE TRACK. 

and united, but did not know as all would call it the 
best kind of union, for they were froze together. That 
it was all quiet so long about the Potomac was no 
accident; such broodings of nightmare would quiet 
anything. A brother asked if they had fanaticism in 
their meetings. That ? s a queer question. Who would 
go to the graveyard to look for disturbers of the 
peace ? No, sir; it requires high pressure life to run 
off the track. Who ever heard of an ox-cart smash- 
ing up, or oxen either ? But when that gleaming, 
one-eyed monster, living on fire, comes along, under 
the terrible power of suppressed expansion, stand 
back ! yes, stand back! and let harnessed thunder go 
through ! It 's no dead and alive thing that runs into 
extravagances. Fanatics and lunatics are made of the 
smartest kind of folks. A fool don't know enough to 
be crazy; they are just bright enough for the devil to 
send round the world to say, There is no God! And 
one whose mouth was shamed out of the nonsense, 
just said it in his heart, so as to tell his master he had 
done the errand. Some of the same sort left ! 

Not long since, I attended a protracted meeting in 
a church of three hundred members, and only twenty 
"who were spiritually alive, as the minister stated. I 
I said to him, Not half of that number can I find. 
That 's true, as some of the best are sick at home. 
Here were eight or ten believers set into this mass of 
worldly, backslidden professors, taking no part in the 
work, except to exhort us to bring in sinners ; that 
they needed this work among sinners to encourage 



RUXXIXG OFF THE TRACK. 289 

tbe church, etc. Reply: " The shelves of this dead 
house are all full; no more corpses can be taken in 
till some of these are resurrected." And still they 
voted to keep up the meetings, and we did. Num- 
bers were brought to life, and testified in public that 
if they had been called to their account but a few days 
before, they would have been lost. This church was 
not as bad off as the one froze together; they had life 
enough to fis;ht the truth and the minister. 

A brother says : " Let me tell you some of my 
experience." 

■- 1 Well, say on." 

" Once I was one of these fiery, excitable kind ; 
up and down in my feelings ; glad to-day and sad to- 
morrow ; but, of late years, I go along about the 
same." 

u I suppose, as the Yankees say, like an even-spun 
thread?" 

"Yes; that's it." 

11 Well, I like a few kinks in my thread, such kinks, 
too, as no mortal can unravel." 

He replies, that "a uniform state of mind is prefer- 
able. Now, I don't go down very low, nor up very 
high, but right along, sort of even." 

u Yes; that's the way they do in the graveyard ; 
they go along about so. If you speak of outward 
deportment, of uniformity in obedience, I agree with 
you ; but soul-life is variable. Practically, death 
and inertia are the only uniform things I think of, 
while life everywhere is the most spasmodic thing in 



290 RUNNING OFF THE TRACK. 

creation ; nothing can master the ups and downs of 
religious life, or any other, but death. And here you 
congratulate yourself on the attainment of soul-even- 
ness. My friend, I fear there is a strong touch of 
death in you. Life — full-pulsed life — don't run so 
even ; it is seen everywhere and in all kinds of life, 
to be uneven. Cut down that old oak tree, whose 
outstretched arms have weathered the storms from 
long ago ; begin at the bark, and count the layers in 
to the heart, and 3^011 shall know how many spasms 
of life it took to make that tree. Now open your 
ears to the great, fitful breath of old ocean ; mark the 
mighty spasm which lifts the waters up. Yes, my 
friend, you apply your notions of even life to wind 
and water, and it would kill both ; and most likely 
you are dead, but died so slow that you did not know 
what it was. Some said it was growing manly in 
religion. 

Now, this whole system of life, of all kinds and 
grades, is illustrated near at home, in the seat of self- 
life. The heart don't know anything else but spasms, 
and on that line it 's above being taught, and that is the 
action of life everywhere ; it is on the ebb and flow 
fashion. The fact is, life antagonizes with so much 
death, that it must go with a spring to overcome. 
Mark ye, there is no spring in death or inertia ; they 
depend on solid, sort of even. Now look at this : 
here is a brother representing the grandest and most 
sublime life in the universe to be the most like death. 
The Lord bless your poor soul with your first experi- 



RUNNING OFF THE TRACK. 291 

ence of life's mighty ups and downs, and teach you 
the difference between death's even and the throes of 
life ! 

But before we part, let me inquire of this brother, 
if it would not be agreeable to you to join some other 
church ? O ! I did that three w r eeks ago ; there you 
have it, and that is just as I hope it always will be. I 
want life's progression to run into Methodism, and 
death's progression to run out ; and now you examine 
every foot-print out from this holy ism, and if you 
find one life-track going out you will find a novelty. 
Mark ye, I do not say the church organization, I mean 
the spiritual of Methodism ; for I have a sister who 
went from the Methodist church to the Presb} r terian 
by my advice ; her husband is a deacon ; there was 
no church of her choice within reach. She joined as 
she had been, the minister said he could smuggle her 
in a Methodist, and he did, and they live and love as 
Christians. So much for my anti-sectarianism. But 
before leaving, let me just note a curiosity in this 
connection. Some churches, I mean in a spiritual 
sense, seem located just in the thoroughfare of life's 
progression. So that when the Holy Spirit comes 
with all his quickening powers, these places receive 
the first tides of life, while others are drawn from. 
I have seen some of these anti-life places, and said to 
the members, that their churches could hardly sur- 
vive God's great coming into a community ; and in 
some places, I have known it keep the poor fellows 
trotting day and night with tracts on fanaticism — 



292 RUNNING OFF THE TRACK. 

wildfire, and animal excitement, just on the necessity 
of self-protection ; but in spite of their watching and 
guarding, divine light and power broke through and 
converted some of their members, when they left for 
the banqueting places. 

Some churches seem erected where you might look 
for a sepulchre, they are so contrived for taking in 
soul corpses ; and when the cause languishes, wicked- 
ness increases, and backsliders are multiplied on every 
hand, jon will see the porcession of death going into 
these dead houses till every shelf is full, and even 
paying rent for lying there ; such require machinery 
in worship. 

These churches live on religious relapses. 

As my neighbor says : The spiritually dead prefer 
a church that is neutral on politics and religion. 

At a camp meeting last year, west of Auburn, N. 
Y., where, with a close look-out against fanaticism, 
they went through with a meeting quite decently, and 
had good done, one minister described religion, by 
a river gliding along through the broad meadows so 
silent and smooth, that one would hardly suspect so 
large a body of water moving so near by. But 0, 
how placid, and then how deep and smooth, etc. 
Reply : That is a very good description, brother, of 
this great salvation and its effect on the mind, and 
there is no fault to be found with it. But if you 
please, just put my river down by the way of Niag- 
ara, I like to go over the falls now and then, and get 
a thorough stirring up ; yes, go down out of sight, 



RUNNING OFF THE TRACK. 293 

where I hold my breath under life's high swells and 
glorious tumults. 

I think you said that deep river moved ? Yes ; 
very good, I am glad of that, but don't let these deep 
river folks get so disturbed, because occasionally the 
white caps go clashing through their placid waters ; 
probably they came over Niagara not long ago, and 
don't get calmed down so soon. If depth and pla- 
cidity are so prominent qualities, here is a good 
chance to show it. But how much charity these dear 
souls need for this Niagara foam ; then, how much 
patience Niagara minds need with half-stagnation. So 
let us all be kind and loving, as one may help the 
other all the way through. 

Now, I like these deep river minds, they are the 
reliables, — the fixed poles by which mariners set their 
compass, or as floating piers in a storm, which a dozen 
rocking, whirling crafts might hitch to with safety. 
Or, better still, they are as ballast in the ship, hold- 
ing things down and holding things right side up, 
making more sails safe ; though but little seen, are 
preventing shipwrecks, without the credit of doing it. 

Now, since I am so near it, let me speak to that friend 
who goes by principle in religion. He says he does 
right because he ought to do right, whether he feels 
like it or not. That is just what you should do ; it is 
w r hat we all preach ; but right — great, immortal right 
— is armed with a higher motive and a greater power 
than is found in the mere conviction of dutj r . You 
may discipline bones and muscles to right doing, be- 



294 KUNNING OFF THE TKACK. 

cause of its propiety and fitness ; but when you come 
to great passionate, surging soul, you are baffled. 
Soul can't live on so cold an aliment as abstract right. 
Soul is made for emotion, and it's a long step from 
principle to passion. If we serve Gocl acceptably, we 
must be so conformed to the similitude of right as to 
be able to do right with a degree of naturalness and 
pleasure ; and perhaps it is safe to say, that our pleas- 
ure in righteousness is in proportion to our natural- 
ness in righteousness ; our present and eternal happi- 
ness in holiness rests on so deep a conformity to holi- 
ness as to make holiness natural to us. "I shall be 
satisfied when I awake w r ith thy likeness." (See 
Bible.) 

Now, brother, you have started right, and just as all 
must start, from conviction ; so go on ; but don't cease 
the struggle till you reach the higher motive of doing 
right because you love to do it. God is glorified, not 
so much in our convictions of right as in our happi- 
ness in right doing. Our spirituality is measured, not 
by our punctiliousness in doing, not by the number of 
chores performed, but by the increasing pleasure of 
doing them ; it is at this point that we approach the 
Divine resemblance. Godliness means joy unspeakble 
and full of glory in the soul, as well as diligence in 
business and honesty in commerce. 

I am aware that this is not the worldly fashion of 
religion. Some churches seem armed with argument 
and sophistry against what they call emotional piety ; 
the whole stress of Christian character and the 



SELFISHNESS. 295 

hope of heaven is laid on outward righteousness. 
With some, the highest type of a Christian is he who 
can do his duty in the coldest blood : they have blood 
thermometers, and he who can stand at soul zero by 
the year, and keep up his religious ceremonies, is the 
model church member. Religious excitement is a, by- 
word and a reproach with them ; harmoniously froze 
together, no danger of running off the track ! If such 
are Bible Christians, then thousands of the old mar- 
tyred saints, who are supposed to have entered into 
final glory, were happy in a delusion. The Lord 
save the deceived. Amen. 



SELFISHNESS. 

The essence of selfishness is seen in the perversion 
of all things, to /, myself, which, in things worldly, 
often result in .the accumulation of what is called 
riches, and but for another fact, the case would be 
tolerable. But, oh, the calamity is, I, myself, am 
circumscribed to myself for happiness, for it is quite 
above the range of selfishess to be happy, even in the 
instrumental good of others. 

The curse of selfishness is in itself — that it is 
doomed to live on itself, which, to benevolence, 
would prove a barren banquet ; which reminds me 
of the salutation of an old friend: "How do yon 
enjoy yourself to-night,. Brother P. ? " I don't eat 
at that table, if you please; live on God's triumphs — 
triumphs in you and in me. 
20 



296 LETTER TO A YOUNG LADY. 

Selfishness affords but one dish for its banquet, and 
that is the same old self dish the year round; while 
benevolence tastes pleasure in the joys and songs of 
others. Selfishness enjoys a seat in the car or church, 
with decrepitude and infirmity leaning on its staff by 
his side; benevolence would find misery in such a 
sitting. But, when we come to things spiritual, to 
the religious world, selfishness is the short starving 
process. 

Religion is the essence of benevolence. Benevo- 
lence is always acting out from itself on others; its 
riches come through apparent home exhaustion ; it 
lives on the influx of its outflow, the reaction of itself — 
the ebb that's sure to bring a home-bound tide. The 
happiness of benevolence comes from broad sowing. 
Its present and future inheritance lives in a thousand 
springs, whose laughing rills shall eternally come 
bounding into the great-souled man, as blessings on 
their cause. 



LETTER TO A YOUNG LADY. 
One thing I observed when at your house, that you 
did not design postponing the woman in the girl, but 
rather to supersede the girl by the woman, only so 
as to take the youthful along with you. Yes, be 
youthful forever, and hurry on to yourself — to what 
you was made for. You was not made to be a girl, 
nor for a girl, and especially not after the model of 
these days. A human being can illy afford to baiter 



LETTER TO A YOUXG LADY. 297 

awnv his high sublime mission on earth for the calling 
of a doll. 

The department of pretty is well supplied, and 
that too on a cheap process, so much so at least that 
it would hardly comport with the Divine wisdom to 
use man in filling up the vacant niches. While the 
moral grand must stand a blank forever, if man fails 
to reach it, the pretty is not adequate to this high 
attainment. Then, the experiment of man pretty was 
tried long ago on a high plan, and, when the last 
grand dazzle was added, he was sent to the lily of 
the fields to read his failure. And this was not half 
trying to outmatch the awkward thing. 

Look at the many birds who grow their own deep 
dyes, and sing by instinct their own warble. Then, 
think of butterflies, who cost only worms for their 
making, with golden flush of wing, then silver some, 
and then neither, but a touch of both, — and now at 
last we come to bug, and say, "pretty man, match: 
him if you can." 

You ask, shall I be indifferent then to all outward 
appearances? By no means, only do not undertake to 
rival butterflies. They were made to look pretty for 
aught I know, and can do it to perfection. Be come- 
ly. This goes at par with all eyes, and in all ages- 
Be tasty. This shows cultivation and refinement*. 
Be symmetrical. This shows a perception of fitness 
and order. Now, are you beautiful at that? If not,, 
no hanging on of feathers or beads will help the case.. 
This being beautiful by special effort, is the worst of 



298 THREE CONDITIONS OF DEATH AVOIDED. 

all homelies. Beauty, like wit, must be incidental — 

.undesigned. 

This excessive try of these days to be pretty, rims 
i&Q much to the doll. For women beauty, the try 
is (too excessive even for pretty. Lady character, of 
late, stands on the jingle of beads and the dangle of 
dhai&s. What is your chain length, lady? I ask not 
for mental or moral qualifications. Give me the 
:CQimt oi' her links, and I have her standing at least 
with the bead fraternity. Ah ! — I except the abori- 
ginal .squaw, who, single handed and barefooted, 
would out-jingle and out-dangle the best of them. 



THREE .CONDITIONS OF DEATH AVOIDED.* 
There are fe.ee conditions of death I wish to shun. The first, 
which I feel, quite safe from, would not die rich, could do better 
than that with money, if I were to go exclusively for fame. That 
is a childish failure of greatness. Grasping, holding, hugging, idol 
mammon, till death shall break the clinch. 

It is a sad spectacle to behold one going through life with eyes 
• closed on the wants -and woes of this wretched world — to so stifle 
the yearnings of pity, both of humanity and religion, coming down 
to death with cankered gold and silver left behind — the cursed sur- 
plus of need for two generations; a witness left unburied of the 
long shut-up bowels of< compassion — lingering curse of dead men's 
bones! The papers aay:: "A Christian gentleman has built him- 
self a house costing one million of dollars." If that is so, I pity 
that Christianity, which could authorize such squandering of the 
; Lord's money, while so ?nany of his saints suffer for this world's 
goods. Again, " A very Christian lady appeared at the convention 

► Extract from an extemporary sermon preached in New York. Reported 
from memory. 



THREE CONDITIONS OF DEATH AVOIDED. 299 

decked with thirty thousand dollars worth of jewelry." If her 
religion is anything like the religion of the Bible, that will prove a 
sad deformity in her character when the account of stewardship is 
called for; perhaps, however, she is only a rich ungodly woman, 
taking on Christian for the purpose of setting off her character to 
better advantage, as we make Esquires by tacking Esq. to their 
names. This is the most modern invention for making church 
members . 

Second — I would not die of old age. Strange occurrence; 
soldiers on the battle field dying of old age. Long wars, but no 
fighting. No! No! it looks too lazy; a slow frittering away of 
one's self by mere existence. Just think of tapering down human 
life to extinction by bare breathing. 

Look at the position of a Christian, thrown out on this arena of 
holy conflict, where responsibilities gather thick and ponderous, 
such as angels never knew. "Where immortality is staked on soul 
struggle, as in no other world ! 

What a spectacle to see one who hopes for glorification, skulking 
through the pressure of thick-pending destinies clear of soul- work 
for others; just degraded down to the low mission of taking care 
of reputation and spinning out a long life. If death calculates on 
the longevity of saints by the process of mere existence, he may 
get mistaken with some who count not their lives dear unto them- 
selves, for while he is following up his victims around the slow 
breathing route, these workers with God, through excessive labors, 
may take a shorter tack to heaven, entering glory ahead of their 
time — that is, of their breathing time. What I mean to say, is 
this : That if saints should keep clear of fellowship in Christ's 
sufferings, taking on no soul burdens for a wretched world, doing 
no hard work for immortality, they might live longer to breathe. 
Not that I wish a short life; no, far from that; am more and more 
anxious to live. But sooner or later, I expect to forestall the slow" 
process, terminating life by hard work for others, instead of breath- 
ing myself to death. 

Thirdly — I would not die full of life, it looks so wasteful. This 
defrauding the cause of God of labors, needed, through fear of not 
living long enough, this hoarding of life and strength, for the pur- 



300 THKEE CONDITIONS OF DEATH AVOIDED. 

pose of spinning out more years, and coming to death at last with 
a surplus of life on hand, it looks prodigal — it gives to death too 
great a triumph — too rich a revel. No ! No ! Let the saints, by 
the love of Christ constraining them, rob the king of terrors of half 
his spoils in them. By wasting and wearing, from conflict to con- 
flict, from triumph to triumph, let them strew their life through the 
years, with dying mostly done before death is aware of it, leaving 
this ruthless conquerer conquered down to the mockery of killing 
a shadow ! 

I want the Lord to take me out of the world, when I leave — not 
that I expect to be so worthy, more than others ; far from this — T 
wish him to take me, out of pity for my exhaustion; would 
like to have him say (0, can it be that this imperfect crea- 
ture will ever be worthy of it ! ) of his saying to the angels : 
"Bring that hard worker out of my vineyard, home to rest. I see 
him trembling on his staff, having spent his strength and life at my 
altars ! bring him home to my throne, that I may say, c "Well done ! 
Well done, good and faithful servant ! Come ! enter into thy joys 
and sit down on my throne. Come and see the converts you have 
brought to Christ. Come and hear a multitude call you blessed.' " 
Yes, let the angels take me with the sweat on my brow and trem- 
bling in my limbs, with the enemy's fiery darts shaking from my 
armor. And suppose I am so out of breath as to require angelic 
wings to fan me through into the upper tides, odor from the cinna- 
mon groves shall bring me to, and eternity shall suffice for resting 



fOA 



f& 



